Saturday 2 May 2015

Government’s War against Non Polluting Vehicles

Even before the National Green Tribunal’s knee jerk crack on polluting vehicles, the NGT passed a far more absurd sultani farman, on February 17, 2015 banning street vendors and cycle rickshaws from select areas in Delhi on the ground that “such offenders add to the pollution of environment and degrade the air quality to the extent which is very injurious to human health, they should be liable to pay compensation in terms of section 15 of the NGT Act 2010.”

By what stretch of imagination can cycle rickshaws and vending carts be accused of causing air pollution?  Cycle rickshaws are in fact the most eco-friendly modes of short distance transport.  They don’t consume petrol or diesel nor do they cause sound pollution.  A rickshaw charges a fraction of what a taxi would charge for same commute.   Similarly, mobile street vendors use non motorized carts to carry items of daily necessity – such as fruits, vegetables and other household goods – to the doorstep of the consumer.  They save us time and money as well as the bother of having to go on motor vehicles for buying daily requirements from crowded markets where parking is a nightmare.  Since their overhead costs are low, hawkers sell goods at lower prices than charged in established shops.  They use mainly natural light and hence save on power.  By contrast, regular stores use fans, coolers, ACs in addition to numerous lights to ensure better display of goods.

MANUSHI has battled for nearly two decades to convince authorities that cycle rickshaws and street vendors deserve to be encouraged if we want to control carbon emissions.

Unfortunately, municipal policies in all cities and town of India have kept street vendors and cycle rickshaws trapped in a web of illegality through restrictive licensing policies.  This makes them easy targets of clearance operations and confiscation drives– which are used by the police, municipal authorities and politicians to extort hundreds of crores by way of bribes.

In response to public hearings organized by MANUSHI, the then Prime Minister Vajpayi had announced a new rational market friendly policy for street vendors and cycle rickshaws in August 2001.  

But Vajpayis’s colleagues in the BJP worked hard to sabotage implementation of that policy.  However, MANUSHI persisted and managed to wrest from the NDA government a National Policy for Street Vendors in 2004 even though the government made no attempt to actually implement it.  It took another ten years before the UPA enacted the Street Vendors Protection of Livelihood Act in 2014.  It has many weaknesses but it at least mandates that vendors cannot be evicted arbitrarily.  Instead, they be given and given secure places in duly designated hawking zones.  Since it has not been implemented on any scale street vendors are still hostage to extortion rackets.

The cycle rickshaw battle went through another route.  Frustrated by resistance of the concerned authorities to dismantle the License Quota Raid Raj as envisaged in PM Vajpayee’s new policy, MANUSHI approached the High Court of Delhi in 2007 challenging the many lawless and unconstitutional provisions governing the operation of cycle rickshaws which enabled the police and municipal employees to confiscate and destroy cycle rickshaws at will.  Every year at least 60,000 rickshaws were being destroyed and many more released after paying hefty fines and bribes.

On 10 February 2010, the Delhi High Court declared the existing rickshaw policy as unconstitutional and struck down unrealistic quotas for licensing. It prohibited confiscation and destruction of rickshaws and ordered chief secretary Delhi Government to constitute a Special Task Force to decide on a new policy that treats NMVs as an integral part of road traffic by providing “equitable” road space for them. I was a member of that Task Force headed by the then chief secretary Rakesh Mehta who did a great job of finalizing in record time a new policy and legislative framework for NMVs.  However, the police and municipal authorities were perverse enough to challenge it in the Supreme Court which fortunately fully upheld the High Court order.
Since then it has been an uphill and frustrating battle to get the new policy implemented which requires open registration of NMVs as well as dedicated tracks for NMVs and proper footpaths for pedestrians.  However, both the police as well municipal authorities are hell bent on preventing this from happening despite the fact that a special bench of the High Court is monitoring its progress.

We are told, given the congestion in Delhi, there is no space for NMV lanes or hawker zones.  But the authorities have no difficulty in finding space for 6-8 lane motorways even though this has meant that the city is choking with petrol and diesel fumes. 

Likewise the city governors can’t find place for hawkers though they are bending themselves backward to earmark huge tracts for car parking either free or at a nominal charge.  Most vendors take less space than what’s needed for a medium sized car and would gladly pay the authorities 3-4 times the amount car owners pay for occupying prime locations.  The space occupied by a car becomes dead for all others whereas street vendors create convenience for customers, generate their own livelihood as well as social wealth by providing low cost outlets for farm produce as well as low priced goods produced by small scale industry.

All first world cities have pedestrianized city centers and encourage cycling by having safe dedicated NMV tracks in order to reduce the use of motor vehicles.  All Asian cities like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore have well organized hawker zones which are huge tourist attraction. They all have wide and beautifully maintained footpaths that make walking a pleasurable experience.  By contrast, both cycling and walking on Indian roads, in small town as well as big cities, is a nightmarish experience because our government thinks only of motor vehicles when designing roads.  There is an active hostility towards those who follow a non-polluting life style-either out of choice or compulsion.  Is it then any surprise that they very act of breathing in India has become a high risk proposition?  

First published in The Indian Express under the title Death by Breath: And malice towards the non-polluterApril 21, 2015, 


Tuesday 17 March 2015

In Politics Women Must Avoid Seeking Patronized Entry

International Women’s Day is a time for celebration, to mark the challenges women have overcome in the fight for equality. But it’s also a time for honest stocktaking, and this is particularly relevant in India where women suffer from severe disabilities. The answer may lie less in legislation like the Women’s Reservation Bill and more in women supporting each other, building political bases from the grassroots and fighting those tough battles that need to be fought     

The biggest challenge facing Indian women today is the criminalization of India’s polity and its domination by money and muscle power. The governance machinery is heavily criminalized and corruption scams are a product of that criminalization. Any society where violence and crime dominate, women tend to get marginalized. The answer does not lie in demanding reserved quotas in legislatures. The answer lies in decriminalizing the machinery of governance and decriminalizing our polity.  A polity in which crime and corruption thrive and is therefore hostile even to honest men cannot possibly be women friendly.
India has taken some baby steps on the road to decriminalizing our polity. For instance, the new rules and regulations about disclosure of assets, etc. are good.  But there is no system in place for taking action if the person concerned under reports or under values assets. The system requires a far more thorough overhaul.  However, very often in the name of course correction, we add far more problems. Take the example of election expenditure; it’s an accepted fact that the expenditure mandated by the Election Commission is totally unrealistic. These days even Delhi University elections are not fought within that limit.

Now when an unrealistic and impractical law is made, people will find ways of sabotaging that provision and find underhand means of doing it. No one can say that money power is not playing an important role in our elections; no one can say that bribes are not given on election eve, or freebies and all manners of inducements are not offered to buy votes, all this is happening despite a fairly vigilant Election Commission. So the rules of the game need to change far more drastically.  
Lack of Political Base
The slower the overhaul and reform of government and governance, the slower will be the pace at which women will come into their own. Take for example the current Cabinet, it’s not that there are no women there but most of them don’t have a political base. They are there because somebody or the other gave them ‘patronized entry’. By contrast, somebody like Sumitra Mahajan is there in her own right. She has won elections time and again on her own strength and therefore her presence has a different kind of meaning than the presence of those who are Rajya Sabha material, don’t have their own political base and who are there only because a powerful male leader patronized them.  
It’s only when women with an independent political base start coming into politics, when women are mobilized in the manner our caste leaders mobilize their caste brethren as vote banks that women leaders will carry some weight and clout.  But very few women leaders are working in that direction. The few who have cared to mobilize a political base of their own become even more powerful than men.  Whatever the flaws in the style of functioning of Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati or Jayalalitha -- all these women are powerful in their own right and even men tremble before them. Why? Because they don’t depend on men, on the contrary male leaders curry favour with them.

They are far from ideal politicians but it goes to their credit that they created their own political base and therefore they actually represent the face of the empowered women. But a notable feature about successful women politicians in India is that most of them have turned out to be very whimsical, vindictive and cranky. There are a few exceptions like Sheila Dikshit and Anandiben Patel—both of whom have maintained a measure of restraint in their behaviour.
However, the tragedy of Indian politics is that the women who succeed, like Mamata Banerjee, Sonia Gandhi, or Mayawati, do so by proving they can outcompete men in the dirt and grime of politics. They can outdo men in all the wheeling and dealing required to win elections. So their presence doesn’t improve the nature and quality of politics.   This is quite contrary to the Gandhian vision. Gandhi believed that women would lead the war against war, that women’s entry into politics would cleanse politics, it would rid politics of money and muscle power and it would bring benign feminine qualities into play. But what we are witnessing is the very opposite: women are masculinising themselves rather than feminizing politics.  They are proving themselves no less crooked than men and often far more authoritarian and power crazed than men.
These women are remarkable in their own right but have played the game by the rules created by the worst of male politicians.  That is why none of them are women friendly because they are not cleansing politics.  
Political parties are the prime instruments of democracy. If they are run as personal fiefdoms, if there is no inner party democracy and transparency in their decision making processes, such parties cannot nurture real talent.  Only sycophants and manipulators can thrive in such outfits. So you cannot enhance the participation of women in any meaningful way in our polity, if the nature of our political parties and institutions of governance, don’t change radically.  
Thus far BJP has attracted far more women workers than most other parties. It has even more women spokespersons than any other party and yet not many women leaders in the BJP can be said to be powerful in their own right. Even a senior like Sushma Swaraj depends on CM of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Chauhan to provide her a "safe" seat.
Ironically, we now have several women headed political parties - Sonia Gandhi leads the Congress, Jayalalitha heads AIADMK, Mamata Banerjee is the unquestioned leader of Trinamool Congress, Mehbooba Mufti of PDP and Mayawati of BSP. But that hasn't really brought forth women as a powerful bloc within these parties. At best, they are brought in for street demonstrations and electioneering. But they haven't emerged as strong satraps with ground support.
The case of AAP, the newest entrant on the political scene is the most interesting. Though this party has adopted the most politically correct position on women's rights, and has a couple of effective female spokespersons, not many women got or won on AAP tickets. And there is not a single woman in Kejriwal's new cabinet. No one is complaining that Rakhi Bidlan has been dropped because she was quite a joke as Women and Child Development Minister during Kejriwal’s first stint as CM.
Today, women are taking more interest in politics. In drawing room conversations earlier men would herd together on one side discussing politics while women would be discussing family affairs. But now at least educated women are engaged in political discussions, they are taking an independent stand, they are more engaged in public affairs.  But that has not translated into women being organised as a steadfast vote bank. This despite the fact that issues of women's safety, mobility, access to education and jobs are fairly high in public discourse and almost every party swears by the need to strengthen women's rights.
Taking Short Cuts
This situation has arisen because women in politics themselves are taking shortcuts and want to continue their dependence on men. Women in India have a distinct history in comparison say with women from Western countries, where they had to fight fierce battles to find a space for themselves in public life and politics. The right of women to vote in America and Europe came after very prolonged and  bitter struggle. Right to equality, equal pay for equal work, took long battles which women waged on their own strength. So they came to organize themselves as a viable vote bank. They mobilized women qua women to take charge of their own affairs, instead of merely waiting for men to give them their due
In India, starting from the 19th century reform movements to the Gandhi-led freedom movement we have witnessed male reformers take up women's issues. These men faced the brunt of social criticism for challenging discriminatory and oppressive social norms vis a vis women. They protected women from direct attacks. Numerous male reformers in different regions of  India dedicated their entire lives to removing crippling restrictions and social disabilities imposed on women. As a result of tireless efforts of men like Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar in Bengal, Justice Ranade and Mahatma Phule in Maharashtra, Veeransalingam in Andhra,  Lala Devraj in Punjab and a host of others in different parts of India, women could begin to reclaim their lost rights in the public domain, including the right to education and jobs in the "Modern" sectors of the economy.
During the freedom movement, especially after it came to be led by Mahatma Gandhi, women's rights movement received even greater strength and support. It is noteworthy that as early as 1919, the Congress party elected Annie Besant as its president. In 1925, Sarojini Naidu became the president of the Congress and by 1930, the Congress Party formally passed a resolution that in free India, women would be guaranteed constitutional equality. Thus the right to vote, the right to hold political office, the right to equal pay for equal work, etc. came to Indian women much before many of the European countries were ready for it. What is more it came without having to beg, grovel or fight against men. By contrast, women in western countries had to face enormous hostility and humiliation including violent attacks in their struggle for these rights.
But this spontaneous support Indian women got from men also led to a culture of dependence unlike in the West where women learnt to fight largely on their own steam. It also means men can draw the line—thus far and no more any time they decide to do so. In India women did not need to wage a gender war against men to claim their due. Mahatma Gandhi in particular worked hard to create a respect worthy space for women in public life. He wanted women to be leaders of men and not come mainly to add numbers in the movement. He reiterated time and again that his choice of non-violence as a weapon of struggle had a lot to do with wanting to see women play a leading role in the freedom movement. It’s well established that whenever violence dominates social life women get pushed to the margins but when non-violence is adopted as a dharma, women don’t have much difficulty in proving themselves equal or even better than men. That is why during the Gandhi led freedom movement numerous women like Kamladevi Chattopadhyaya and Hansa Mehta emerged in different parts of India and they were not just confined to the women's wing of the Congress party but became leaders of men as well. In those days, Congress had committed party workers in every city, town, district and even at the village level.
Biwi Beti Girl Friend Brigade of Indian politics
However in post independence India as money and muscle power came to slowly dominate our political life, women started falling behind. This is because Nehru did not care to democratize the machinery of governance. He let the same old colonial system of administration continue unchecked. Since lack of accountability is inherent in the system that the British left behind, corruption and tyranny are its inevitable products. In this system, holding a political office is as good as holding a loot license. Hence politics too became a game of plunder. In such a situation even honest men find it difficult to survive in politics. It is noteworthy that most eminent Gandhians withdrew themselves from the electoral arena and confined themselves to social work. Therefore, the only kind of women who found a place in politics were those who could be as ruthless and unscrupulous as men or those who got a patronized entry into politics through familial connections with powerful political satraps. Today, most women politicians fall in the category of Biwi Beti Brigade. The reservation of women at panchayat and zila parishad level has strengthened this tendency. Men who are asked to vacate their seat for a term because its reserved for women, manage to convince the party bosses that the seat should be assigned to their wife or some other female relative so it remains a safe citadel for the family.
Barring exceptions, such women are there to safeguard their family interests not to safeguard the interests of women or their constituents. They are willing to play by the same foul rules of the game that men play. That’s why their presence in politics does not work to empower women as a group.

But things have gotten far worse in the last decade and a half. If earlier, the Biwi Beti Brigade cornered whatever little space was available to women in politics, now girlfriends and mistresses are also claiming that space. The earlier generations of politicians too had their 'aiyyashi' but they kept that side of their life under cover. But today, the "casting couch" phenomenon has raised its ugly head in virtually every political party. One hears horrid accounts of how young women who are not connected to any powerful male leader through family ties have to oblige male leaders in demeaning ways. Sexual exploitation in political parties is no less rampant than in the film or fashion industry.
Earlier, the girl friends and mistresses of politicians were kept in the background. Now these women are flaunting themselves openly and demanding not just party tickets to fight elections but also ministerial berths. So if we introduce reserved quota for women in our legislature, this new breed is likely to corner a large chunk of the quota along with the Biwi Beti Brigade. At least, the wives and daughters commanded a measure of respect from male politicians because they maintained a degree of dignity in their conduct with men. But women who use powerful men to climb up are treated with utter disdain by their party colleagues. They also have a very demoralising effect on other young women seeking a foothold in politics. The message is clear - your work doesn't but ability to manipulate men or willingness to be subservient to men's needs is what takes you forward. This is an important factor why ordinary women who value their dignity and don’t wish to use sex for climbing up, shun politics. Since ordinary women are averse to joining politics because of such adverse conditions, every party is short of women workers. This is an important reason why not enough women get tickets.
Those who feel concerned about the inadequacy of female representation in our politics need to address these issues. Without cleansing politics of crime and corruption, without ensuring a dignified environment for women, without genuine inner party democracy you cannot attract large numbers of female political workers. In such a situation, it is unrealistic to expect political parties to field enough women candidates.
On The Plus Side
But the situation is not all grim. The most hopeful aspect of Indian politics is that ordinary voters are not at all averse to electing women or seeing them in positions of power. The data from the very first election onward clearly shows that the success rate of women candidates is far higher than that of male candidates. This indicates that if a credible woman candidate appears on the scene, voters tend to prefer her over men. Feminists keep crying discrimination. Yes, party bosses discriminate against women but we should draw strength from the fact that voters are not biased against women. If anything they show a distinct bias in favour of women. Look at the way Indira Gandhi came to be lionized as Durga incarnate as she grew more domineering. Her emergence as a political leader who created fear among her male colleagues was celebrated, not ridiculed. She was admiringly called "the only man" in her cabinet. Such a woman wouldn’t fare so well in the West, or become a loved icon the way Indira became, till she turned despotic and became marred with charges of corruption and nepotism. A Durga-like woman does not  easily get such admiration among men in the West leave alone command reverence and awe. But in India, all those women who assume the role of powerful matriarchs and learn to command men, do very well. But those who keep whining about equality or operate under male patronage don’t reach too far.
It’s to do with the all pervasive mother complex in our society. Even grown up men are expected to and are respected for being reverential towards their mothers. Unconditional obedience to a mother's commands are held up as a cultural ideal. Such a man in the West would be sent to a psychiatrist for Oedipal complex and treated as an infantile creature. But in our culture, feminine as Shakti is treated as worship worthy. Smart women use it well to their advantage.
It is not a coincidence that all the powerful women politicians in recent decades have either been single or widows. Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati never married. Sonia Gandhi came into her own only after she became a widow.
Jayalalitha too acquired real clout and aura only after MGR’s death.  Sheila Dikshit may have gained entry into politics as a daughter-in law –but she came to be counted only after her husband and father-in law passed away.
On the Women’s Reservation Bill
I have serious reservations about the women’s reservation bill even though I do wish to see serious enhancement in women’s participation in politics. The Bill is highly flawed in its present form and needs serious reformulation. We had presented an Alternative Bill which was adopted by the Election Commission of India as a far more viable proposal. (for detail description http://manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1100#.VQgPstKUeGN)
I am of the firm belief that cleansing politics of crime and corruption of eliminating the role of muscle is far more important at this point in time than ensuring quotas for women.  If women were to lead the battle for far reaching political reforms and succeed in the task, that will automatically create a respect worthy place for them in electoral politics.
There is no substitute for creating an independent political base through solid work. Can the Quota Brigade claim in all honesty that they have done the required ground work and are yet denied tickets?  Women weaken themselves by seeking patronized entry. That prevents the emergence of an effective women’s lobby in our politics. They see each other as competitors rather than comrades and colleagues. It is noteworthy that most women leaders don’t get along with women within their own parties; instead of promoting each other, they try and under cut each other. A Minakshi Lekhi would see a Nirmala Sitharaman as a threatening rival rather than rejoice in the other’s elevation. Likewise Jayanti Natarajan won’t be pleased at Ambika Soni’s elevation. But they all play rhetorical tribute to women’s empowerment. Women as a group remain weak because each one vies for male patronage rather than bond with other women.  In the West, women gained strength as a group because they had to bond with each other in the face of a hostile male dominated establishment. In India, women have instead sought patronized entry which can help individual women but not women as a group.
But we must remember that women have made a mark for themselves in European democracies mainly because the rules of the game were already relatively clean. Take the case of Scandinavian countries where women have even crossed the 50% mark without reserved seats. They could do so because there is genuine inner party democracy with a high degree of transparency in their functioning.  There women mobilized bottom up – starting from neighborhood politics. That’s how they built a solid political base for their participation. The trouble with my feminist sisters in India is that they don’t want to start at mohalla level and fight municipal corporation elections. They want to get MLA and MP tickets straight away simply because they come from elite backgrounds, are articulate and have access to media. You can’t get your due place in politics by going and shouting in TV studios, making statements in press or raving and ranting against male politicians.  If you want to be served parosi thali by men, then you have to accept a secondary status.
For all their rhetorical radicalism, the pro reservation lobby of feminists can’t mobilize even 20,000 women to come and demonstrate in Delhi, leave alone display a massive support base in the way a Mamata Banerjee or Narendra Modi can do.  That is why they are not taken seriously.  

First published in Parliamentarian, March 2015


Posted on March 17, 2015

Monday 26 January 2015

How NaMo Transformed Sarkari Festivals into People’s Festivals


It speaks volumes that two of the most important days in the political calendar of modern India – namely Independence Day and Republic Day – are marked by mere sarkari ceremonies.  On August 15 school children are brought in as audiences under the hot sun or pouring rain to be passive audiences at the PM’s speech to the nation.  On 26 January, the sarkari function is a long spectacle with armed forces followed by school children going down Rajpath in a grand parade peppered with colorful floats of each state.  However, for all its grandeur, the Republic Day is without any participatory role for the public. (See my article: Some Thoughts on India's Republic Day ‏ --Republic Day Celebrations without the Public The same pattern is repeated on a lower scale in all state capitals.

For the average citizen, both these days are just two more official holidays – though more quiet and relaxing than most because even the bazaars are compulsorily shut down.
However, Narendra Modi changed all that  in the second year of his term as  chief minister of Gujarat. From 2003 onwards he converted these two deadpan official functions as well as the May 1st, Gujarat founding day celebrations into people’s festivals with the government of course playing a leading creative role. The first major change  it involved was to shift these functions away from the state capital into the various districts of the state. In 2003, he announced that henceforth the focus of celebrations on January 26, May 1st and August 15 would not be only in the state capital as is the practice in all the states of India.  Each of these major functions would be celebrated in a different district of Gujarat. This didn’t mean simply replicating the standard official function in some district headquarter.  It meant a whole new orientation.  The function was not only made participatory but the occasion began to be used to give that particular district a total facelift and a new pride in its own unique history regional culture as well as the past and present accomplishment of its people.
When Modi first announced that the locale for the 2003 Independence Day celebrations would be the ancient historic town of Patan, Gujarat Congressmen protested vehemently.  They even held black flag demonstrations and organized their own parallel function as a matter of protest.  The Gujarat media too gave big mileage to these protests and made it out as if this was some kind of mad Tuglaqi move of NaMo.  They held similar protests for the Republic Day and Gujarat Founding Day celebrations in district towns. But these protests dwindled in size and significance as these regional functions became more and more popular and evoked an enthusiastic response for the following reasons:
1)   Whichever district got selected for hosting the Republic Day, the Gujarat Day or Independence Day celebrations, was simultaneously expected to prepare well in advance a whole list of small and big development projects for the area.  The Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the district prepared this list by consulting local panchayats and municipal corporations.  DCs were also encouraged to come up with their dream projects for the area that involved innovation and had the potential to infuse new life into the district.  These projects ranged from minor things like a new bus terminal in a hitherto poorly connected place, water harvesting structures, a new Industrial Training Instituteor new hospital, new hostel or connecting government schools to e-learning or a major river front development project with new recreational and commercial complexes built into it.  The budgets for these were also sanctioned with speed well in advance and each DC made to deliver those projects within the given time frame.  The budget typically ran into Rs 1000 to Rs 2000 crores depending on the size and requirements of the district. 
2)   Fifteen days before the scheduled event all the Cabinet ministers were made to tour the district not just to oversee the satisfactory completion of commissioned projects but to inaugurate those falling within their ministry’s domain.  A day before the event the chief minister arrived in the district and inaugurated some of the major projects.  Thus in one go the selected district would witness major uplift in civic infra-structure and new educational and health facilities leading to all round development in a time bound manner.
3)   The local government in each instance was also mandated to launch a major cleanliness drive for the entire district with the aim of making it garbage free. This included setting up the required municipal systems for garbage management.  Modi made it a point to communicate to people of the district in his public speech that from then on it was their job to maintain high level of hygiene and cleanliness in their district.  The district headquarter in particular underwent major sprucing up.  On the eve of the big day, the district headquarter would also be lit up and decorated to make key segments of the town carry a festive look.  Its impact on society at large can be gauged from the fact that many commercial establishments as well as private homes joined the celebration by lighting up their respective buildings.
4)   On the eve of Republic Day, Gujarat Day and Independence Day a major cultural program began to be organized in the district headquarters.  Typically 30,000 to 50,000 persons attend the meticulously arranged cultural program also attended by the chief minister. Almost everyone is provided proper chairs even though the scale is mammoth.  World class audio-visual arrangements are made so that even with a giant gathering, there is no disorder and no chaos and the program is seen and heard by the last person in the last row.  I attended two such programs (Republic Day 2013 in Bhuj and Independence Day 2013 in Banaskantha). The discipline and orderly arrangements in both were awe-inspiring. 
The unique thing about this two hour cultural program is that it is neither a Bollywood song and dance bonanza as is becoming common in India these days in the name of cultural programs, nor is it marked by amateurish performances as is common in small towns of India.  The artists are always local but they are given proper professional training even though many may be performing for the first time.  The two functions I attended involved an elaborate high tech-audio-visual dance drama that enacted the history of Bhuj and Banaskantha districts respectively. They were both conceptualized and directed by known Gujarati writers with Gujarat Government’s Secretary of Info and Culture Bhagyesh Jha, himself a known poet and writer, playing a key role in formulating the script and artistic inputs.  Both these docu-dramas provided a scintillating crash course in the socio-political and cultural history of that district from times immemorial to the present day. Both provided gripping performances that included hi-tech audio-visual inputs, regional music, dance, poetry and dramatic narrative through selecting key revealing moments in the history of the area.  Both had world-class sound and light effects.  Both used local artists from within the district.
Another major highlight of the evening bonanza is that, NaMo set the tradition of honoring local heroes – be they educationists, artists, writers, medical professionals or dedicated social workers selected through a transparent process.  This too generates a great deal of public enthusiasm in the entire district.
But the biggest star of the show would be NaMo himself who would deliver a public address exhorting people to take pride in their region along with other social-political messages.
Thus the entire focus of the Republic Day Gujarat Day and Independence Day eve programs is to enhance the self esteem of that region and get familiarized with their own unique history and culture – not just celebrate being Indian or being Gujarati but also celebrate their own micro regional cultural identity.  By combining folklore, mythology with cultural and political history, these programs encourage young people to value the study of their past and celebrate their local heroes.  However, they have meaning for the rest of Gujarat as well.  Through these programs, each region of the state gets to better understand and appreciate other regions of the state.
The next day the celebrations are more official – the usual parade or flag hoisting and a formal address of the chief minister to the people of his state.
It is fortunate that Anandiben Patel, the new chief minister of the state has decided to keep alive this tradition with equal aplomb.   
This time Narendra Modi has not had time to refashion the Independence Day celebration into a people’s festival as he did in Gujarat because he has had no breathing space from the day of his swearing-in on May 26, 2014.  The main change that one witnessed this time in Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort was that space for over 30,000 ordinary citizens had been provided to witness the Prime Minister’s address to the nation from the ramparts of Lal Quila.  But this is too little going by NaMo’s penchant for bringing about major tectonic shifts in the way things are done in government.  I hope by the time of the coming Republic Day, he has acquired enough grip over governance in Delhi to make 26 January 2014 the most historic Republic Day in Post-independence India.

Reposted on January 26, 2015


Madhu Kishwar

Madhu Kishwar
इक उम्र असर होने तक… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …اک عمر اثر ہونے تک