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Sushant Singh Rajput: Fall of A Star

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20
Publisher Sandip Kumar Ghosh
SR Vice president Meenakshi Akash COVER STORY
Vice presidents Shrutika Dewan,
Diwan Singh Bisht
Sr General Managers Kabir Khattar (Corp),
After China killed 20 Indian soldiers at the LAC, Modi
Debabani Tagore, Shailender Vohra
General ManagerS Sasidharan Kollery,
says he will not “compromise on borders”. As the
Shashank Dixit
Chief Manager Shekhar Kumar Pandey prospect of disengagement looks bleak, what does
MANAGERS Shekhar Suvarana, Sudha Sharma
CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTION Anindya the future hold for the sparring neighbours?
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2 o u tlo o k | June 29, 2020

R.O.S.No 11219/1
 Letters feedback › outlook@outlookindia.com

22/6/2020

during the lockdown and still saw market-driven reforms,

seem to rely more on divine
intervention rather than
strategic planning.
NAINITAL
Vijay Adhikari: The Black
Death of 1347, in which a third
of Europe’s population per-
ished, is a grim reminder of the
upheavals that turned highly
stratified medieval society
upside down, adversely affect-
ing the fortunes of Europe’s
wealthy landowners. The
novel coronavirus could
become a game changer too.
The post-liberalisation period
but the poor remained largely
invisible. Even the media and
mainstream cinema catered to
the upwardly mobile urban
middle class. As the pandemic
deepens the economic crisis,
the value of migrant labourers’
work and their indispensabil-
ity is dawning upon us. As eco-
nomic activities resume, their
services are required to boost
the economy. So, immediate
succour and monetary benefits
are the need of the hour to win
their trust and support,
Otherwise, who knows what
chaos will follow?

From the Daak Room

d i g i m a g . o u t lo o k i n d i a . c o m

Day Of
Reckoning
MUMBAI
Ashok Goswami: This refers to your cover
story COVID-19: All We Know, All We Don’t
yo u t u b e . c o m / o u t lo o k m a g a z i n e

(June 22). Did the lockdown work? That is a

million-dollar question. It was supposed to
slow down and eventually stop the spread of
the disease and give the government time to
bolster healthcare services. Some might say
that without the lockdown, there might have
been millions of cases instead of the three
lakh or so right now. However, the answer is
that the government has failed on both
fac e b o o k . c o m / o u t lo o k i n d i a

counts. It hoped that by locking people,

cases would be confined, but it did not take
any proactive action alongside. It failed to
ramp up testing, which is a vital tool to stop
the spread of the pandemic. But in the first
45 days, the number of tests did not touch
even a lakh. Many people who had symp-
toms were advised to remain at home, but
t w i t t e r . c o m / o u t lo o k i n d i a

neither they nor their family members were

tested. This was a grave error. The US has
conducted almost eight million tests, while
India’s figures remain dismal. Our broken
healthcare system remains a hindrance. We
spurned the opportunity to contain the virus
Company Call Letter from Emily Eden (1797-1869) to a friend.
She was an English poet and novelist who wrote an account of
her travels in India.

00 o u tlook4| may
outlook | june 2 9 , 2020
4, 2020
ALSO AVAILABLE IN SUPER SAVER PACK OF 15
 Letters
News / sluggg/subslug
Peace
Parleys
MUMBAI
Devendra K. Mishra: The
cover story Can India
become China 2.0? (June 15)
is on point. We must dream
big, but also not close our
eyes to the obvious. The
world was never so small as
it is today. We should realise
that the position China
occupies is the result of its
long-term strategies and
strong policies. Its political
system might have given
China an upper hand, but its
efforts can not be over-
looked. Anti-China senti-
ments might make us
jubilant, but rhetoric cannot
ON E-MAIL
Vijai Pant: This refers to
Our Tarnished Touchstones
(June 15). Balbir Singh, like
other hockey players of his
time, always lived in the
shadow of Dhyan Chand.
Consequently, he could
never get his due. Moreover,
hockey, despite being our
national game, has not been
able to get corporate back-
ing and thus, generate inter-
est among the masses. It is
up to those in power to set
things right. Unfortunately,
successive governments
O u6t l ooo
u tlo d i |ajune
k i nok . c o m29, 2020
lead us anywhere.
We need a thor-
ough analysis of
our orientation
and preparedness
to avail opportu-
nities before
other nations
snatch them.
MARUTHANCODE
G. David Milton: It is
unfortunate that the LAC
has become a potential
flashpoint when the world is
grappling with a pandemic.
However, it is a positive sign
that talks are on at military
and diplomatic levels to find
a peaceful solution. Both
India and China must guard
against a hardline stance
and avoid a collision course.
They should rely on
have failed here as well. We
may have recently started
thinking beyond cricket, but
hockey—both the game and
its iconic players—contin-
ues to be ignored.
GUWAHATI
Ashim Kumar
Chakraborty: This refers
to Dead Xihu’s Tears
(June 15). The oil well blaze
has gutted Baghjan in
Assam. This area is also
known as the Amazon
feedback
diplomatic engage-
ment to reduce
tension along the
border in Ladakh
and Sikkim and
sort out their terri-
torial claims to
areas adjacent to
the LAC. Both have
health and eco-
nomic challenges due to the
pandemic, so military conflict
is not an option. No country
should base its foreign policy
on the ‘might is right’ princi-
ple or flex its military might
to settle territorial claims. If
reports that China made
multiple incursions into areas
hitherto held and patrolled by
India were true, it should
retreat and restore the status
quo ante. Since we are a
democracy, the Opposition is
Pa r t h a S a r at h i D a s
rainforest of the east.The
Baghjan area had rich biodi-
versity, but the fire has had
an impact on the wildlife.
Eight thousand people have
lost their homes. The CM of
Assam tried to console the
victims. Locals are now
demanding a total ban on
drilling holes for oil and gas
around the Dibru Saikhowa
National Park. They want
restrictions on drilling within
a 10-15-km radius of the
park. The blaze hasn’t
| picture: getty images |
› outlook@outlookindia.com
within its rights to ask the
government to share infor-
mation about the situation
along the border and explain
the credibility gap between
denial of intrusions and par-
tial disengagement or pull-
out by Chinese troops. Some
sections of the Indian media
do no service with rhetoric
like “India stares down the
dragon”. Jingoism, bellicos-
ity and sabre-rattling are not
signs of strength. Anyway,
a pandemic is not a time to
think in terms of national-
ism, militarism and expan-
sionism—it is a time to
foster peace and coopera-
tion. The virus mocks the
world’s troops, tanks and
stockpiles of arms and
makes a case for demilitaris-
ing the planet.
stopped even though fire-
fighters have been trying to
douse it for more than three
weeks. Experts from Oil India
Ltd say it could take more
than one month. Nobody can
predict what will happen to
the locals. Hundreds of thou-
sands of birds, animals and
trees have been gutted to ash.
The incident proves that
uncontrolled development
and industrialisation will
eventually destroy our biodi-
versity and our lives.
m ay 4 , 2 0 2 0 | o u t loo k 00
The
News
Cheap and commonly available
corticosteroid dexamethasone, used
to treat arthritis, immune system
disorders, and allergic reactions, cuts
the risk of death by a third for patients
on ventilators, according to an Oxford
University team. For those on oxygen,
it cuts deaths by a fifth. It helps save
seriously-ill Covid patients, but isn’t
effective for mildly ill patients.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye-
sus says more than 100,000 confirmed
cases of coronavirus have been report-
ed worldwide each day over the past
two weeks—mostly in the Americas
and South Asia. It took over two months
to reach 100,000 reported cases—now
that is a daily norm.
The Andhra Pradesh assembly—for
the second time this year—passed
two bills for establishing Amaravati as
the legislative capital, Visakhapatnam
the executive capital, and Kurnool the
judicial capital. The TDP, which wants
Amaravati as sole capital, had halted
these bills in the council.
8 o u tlo ok | june 29, 2020
Behind the Firebreak
Assam calls in more foreign experts to contain the flaming
oilhead that has forced thousands to flee their homes
Abdul Gani in Guwahati
S
ixteen-year-old Moromi has
been staying at the Guijan High
School in upper Assam’s Tinsukia
district for the last one week, forced to
leave her home along with her family-­
members and hundreds of her neigh-
bours after an gas well caught fire in her
village, Baghjan, on June 9.
The fire, which initially spread over
several hundred metres around the
site, has gutted several houses, trees
and standing crops, forcing authorities
to evacuate the villagers to the shelter
at the school. The fire, though con-
tained in the the oil well, continues to
rage. Oil India Limited authorities say
that it would take at least four weeks to
douse the fire and control the leakage.
Moromi is still numb after witness-
ing the conflagration engulf the area.
“Seeing such a huge fire, the village
was in shock. Panic-stricken, we
rushed for safer places. I have never
been in such a situation,” she tells
Outlook over the phone. “Our house
is safe but we lost two goats,” adds
Moromi, whose father is a fisherman.
Her immediate concern now is about
the safety and viability of her father’s
PTI
job. Moromi has read the portent
well—she recalls seeing scores of fish
die in nearby water bodies. “I don’t
know what will happen to our family.
I don’t even know when we will be
able to go back,” she says dejectedly.
More than 7,000 people have been
displaced following the incident. Vil-
lagers started fleeing their houses after
frequent tremors rocked the area fol-
lowing the fire. An expert who didn’t
wished to be named said that the trem-
ors are due to “pressure exerted by
gas…sound waves from the fire which
travels in the air in low frequencies.
And they will continue till the fire is
finally put out”.
Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal
has said the government will bring in
more experts from Australia, Canada
and Singapore to douse the fire.
Experts from Singapore, Canada and
US are already engaged at the site.
The fire has also posed a threat to the
rich biodiversity of the area. The Mag­
uri-­­Motapung wetlands, a spot known
for a variety of avian and aquatic species,
is located within a kilometre to the south
of the site. Dibru Saikhowa National
Park, another biodiversity hotspot, is
also located barely two kilometres away
towards the north. O
 Poliglot
m i x e d s h o t S
Snapshot
Former CM Ibobi Sigh of Congress (left) and CM N. Biren Singh, who leads the BJP alliance
Lotus Wilts in Loktak
Abdul Gani in Guwahati
In the hills and val­
Manipur leys of the North­
east, as the saying
goes, politics gets as fickle as the
weather in the region. It took the BJP
barely three years to find out that it’s
easier to rise to the top than stay put.
And this is only about Manipur.
On June 18, the Congress staked claim
to form a government in the Northeastern
state, a day after the BJP-led government
was reduced to a minority in dramatic and
quick-changing developments.
On Wednesday, nine MLAs, including
three from the BJP, four from NPP, one
from Trinamool Congress and one inde­
pendent legislator, withdrew support to
the BJP-led coalition government of
chief minister N. Biren Singh.
In 2017, the Congress had won 28
seats and the BJP 21. The BJP, however,
managed to form the government with
the support of four NPP MLAs, four
from the NPF, a lone member of the
Trinamool Congress, one MLA of the
Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and an inde­
pendent member. The BJP also enjoyed
the support of seven Congress MLAs,
who are still members of the party but a
case of their disqualification is pending
in court. They cannot vote until the ver­
dict is pronounced. The Manipur High
Court restrained them from entering
10 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020
pti
Kannada actress Sonika
Gowda and others hug
trees in protest against
a plan to fell them for the
Bangalore metro project
the assembly last week.
On June 18, the Congress-led Secular
Progressive Front (SPF), with former
chief minister O. Ibobi Singh at the helm,
submitted a memorandum requesting
Governor Najma Heptulla to convene a
special assembly session to adopt a reso­
lution on a no-confidence motion against
the BJP government. “I hope that the
minority BJP government in Manipur
will be dismissed soon by the Governor. I
also pray that the Indian Constitution
will be upheld by all. In the interest of
democracy and to uphold our Consti­
tution, Manipur must have the new SPF
government,” said Congress spokesper­
son Ningombam Bupenda Meitei after
the team met the Governor in Imphal on
Thursday. The strength of the Congress
in the House is now 20, while that of the
BJP, after resignation of three of its
MLAs, has been reduced to 18.
The present ministry is supported by
only 23 MLAs, 18 from the BJP, four from
the NPF and one from the LJP. On the
other hand, the SPF has 20 Congress
MLAs, four NPP MLAs, one from the
TMC and an independent MLA, totalling
26 members out of an effective total
house strength of 49 members, claims the
memorandum to the Governor. The
Congress and the NPP have also sought
removal of the assembly speaker
Y. Khemchand Singh, terming him
‘authoritarian’. O
Stop,
Juggernaut
Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar
The chariots of the gods are not to roll
in this year of pestilence. The Supreme
Court’s decision to disallow the annual
Rath Yatra in Puri in view of the pan­
demic has left millions of Jagannath
devotees disappointed. The angry con­
sensus: the Odisha government did not
try to convince the apex court about
even a token yatra, minus devotees. “I
am devastated. The last time the rath
yatra was not held was nearly 300 years
ago due to external aggression” says
Laxmidhar Behera in Bhubaneswar.
Many others broke into tears when the
news was broken to them.
Acting on a petition seeking a stay on
the yatra filed by Odisha Vikash
Parishad, a three-judge SC bench
headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde said
on June 18: “We consider it appropriate
in the interest of public health…to
restrain respondents from holding the
Rath Yatra this year.” The bench
rejected repeated pleas, including that
of solicitor-general Tushar Mehta.
“Lord Jagannath will not forgive us if
we allow this…. Activities related to the
Rath Yatra are injuncted,” Bobde noted
with finality.
Preparations were on for Odisha’s big­
gest religious festival, including the
making of the chariots, in anticipation
of a token yatra. Many are convinced
that the government was behind the
Parishad petition. “How else could a lit­
tle known organisation afford a lawyer
like Mukul Rohatgi?” asks a devotee. O
 Poliglot
Rajasthan

All’s Well Who

Checks In
Puneet Nicholas Yadav

S
ummer vacations, under normal
circumstances, set the cash
registers ringing for the hospitality
sector. These, however, are unusual
times as the coronavirus-induced
lockdown has been bleeding hotels and
resorts dry. Amid this gloom, an
unexpected flurry of guests checked in at
Jaipur’s Shiv Vilas Resort on June 10.
These weren’t the usual vacationers who
arrive at the premium Pink City
property to enjoy a luxurious stay,
starting upwards of Rs 50,000 a night for
a suite, but MLAs supporting the state’s
Ashok Gehlot-led government as well as
Congress legislators from Gujarat.
The Congress had, in early June, lost
three of its MLAs to the BJP in Gujarat.
The fear of losing more had forced the
party to dial Gehlot for help. Gehlot
obliged and over 60 Gujarat Congress
MLAs traveled to Jaipur to be placed
under self-quarantine at Shiv Vilas.
Then, Mahesh Joshi, Congress chief
whip in the Rajasthan assembly, claimed
that the BJP now had eyes on party
MLAs and independent legislators
supporting the Gehlot government.
After the inter-state resort-hopping by
MLAs cost the Congress its government
in Madhya Pradesh this March, Gehlot
wasn’t willing to take any chances. The
MLAs were packed off to join their
Gujarat counterparts.
What gave the horse-trading rumours
an air of credibility was the BJP’s
decision to field two candidates for the
June 19 Rajya Sabha polls. With its 72
MLAs and support of another eight, the
BJP would need to poach at least 22
legislators from the rival camp to win
the two seats. The Congress, with 107
MLAs and support of another 13
After defections cost
party its government
in Madhya Pradesh,
Gehlot wasn’t willing
to take any chances.
Congress MLAs at a hotel in Jaipur
independents in the 200-member
assembly, expects victory for both its
nominees—K.C. Venugopal and Neeraj
Dangi—who each require 51 first-
preference votes from the legislators.
With all MLAs pledging fealty to the
Congress and intra-party rival, deputy
CM Sachin Pilot, just as surprised about
the defection rumours, Gehlot breathed
easy. Gehlot and Pilot headed to another
posh hotel—the JW Marriott—to inform
the media that their MLAs were not for
sale. The lockdown-hit resorts got
much-needed guests, the sequestered
MLAs enjoyed a reunion, the Congress
heaved a sigh of relief and the absence of
BJP’s prominent faces in state politics—
Vasundhara Raje and Gulab Chand
Kataria—through the circus allowed
little-known BJP state president Satish
Poonia some easy publicity. O

brevis

Maria Ressa, a Second Lieutenant Tamil cinematogra- India’s oldest The Academy of
journalist critical of Anmol Narang pher B. Kannan, first-class cricketer Motion Picture Arts
the Philippine has become the first renowned for his Vasant Raiji has and Sciences has
president, was Sikh woman to association with died at the age of 100. postponed next
convicted of libel and graduate from the US director Bharathiraja A right-handed year’s Oscars
sentenced to jail for Military Academy at and films such as batsman, Raiji played ceremony by two
her website Rappler West Point. She is a Alaigal Oyivadhillai, nine first-class months because of
reporting murder etc second-generation has died in Chennai. games in the 1940s the pandemic. The
linked to him. immigrant. He was 69. and scored 277 runs. new date is April 25.

Outlookindia.com j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 11
 Poliglot

MixedShots
The $1,100,000 Cure

M
ichael Flor was so sick with COVID-19 that his wife and Baba
children bade him their final goodbyes. But after a 62-day mara­ Black Kiss
thon treatment at Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah, Washing­

O
ton, the 70-year-old recovered. As shocking as his recovery was the 181-page ne wonders why scientists are bothering
bill of $1.1 million (Rs 8.14 crore). The outrageous sum would have possibly to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 when a
proved fatal for most, but Flor had already ‘baba’ in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam district
defeated death once. His insurance meant had found an antidote. The magical medicine? A
kiss on the hand from the baba and some black
that he would have to pay only $6,000
magic to bolster its potency. However, there is
and thanks to new US regulations
one side effect of the prophylactic: contracting
specific to COVID-19, he might not even
Covid. About 85 people have tested positive in
have to pay a dime from his pocket.
the district—among them, 19 were at the
Private hospitals in India charging receiving end of the baba’s labial ministrations.
exorbitant advances of Rs 6 lakh and The virus also infected the baba and before one
offering per day packages starting at a lakh could say, “Healer, heal thyself,” he succumbed
a day now seems like a nifty bargain from to the kiss of death. O
Chor Bazaar in comparison to US hospitals. O

T
Corona Of A Solar Eclipse
he ancients knew a thing or two about the sun. That it has a ring, a corona, and
that it gives life, takes it away too. And the eclipsed sun occasioned some blood­
letting and head-rolling in the Mayan universe. Could the accursed solar eclipse
have a connection with the coronavirus? Yes, yes, says a nuclear and earth scientist in
Chennai. His theory: COVID-19 outbreak began with the December 26 eclipse, breaking
out after ‘a mutated particle’s interaction of the first neutron due to fission energy’
emitted by eclipses. What? Well, an inter-planetary configuration/variation in a rea­
ligned solar system helped the particle nucleate with absorbent foreign material in our
upper atmosphere, thereby forming a biomolecule nucleus. Mutation of this nano-pro­
tein gave birth to the virus. If you believe in quantum astrology, wait for the next eclipse
when the sun’s fission energy will make COVID-19 disappear. O

Baby Got Back When Life Gives You Bananas…

I P
T was the most incongruous of pairings. A woman
tested negative for COVID-19, but her 27-month-
old baby was positive, while another woman
suffering from the disease found out that her six-year-
old son was negative. The boy’s entire family was
suffering from the virus and there was no one to take
care of him. So, doctors at STNM Hospital in Gangtok
came up with a devilishly smart plan—they switched
the kids between the
mothers to ensure
he was looked after
and the disease
doesn’t infect the
woman who tested
negative. O
Venkata Subbaiah, 43, has a
Bachelors in education and
two MAs in Telugu and public
administration. But now he is forced to
sell bananas for a living. He had been
working at a premier corporate school
in Nellore when the management
asked him to find students to enroll for the new academic year if he
wanted to keep his job. He couldn’t and soon went around town
hawking bananas on a cart. He has diabetes, kidney disease and an
outstanding loan of Rs 3.5 lakh he had taken for his child’s medical
treatment. Unfortunately, he could not even earn Rs 200 a day, so
his former students started a fundraiser and collected over Rs 87,000
to assist him! Surely he must have been the kind of teacher who
never reprimanded his students for saying, “Sir, can I come in?” O

12 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020 Ill u s t r a t i o ns : saa h i l ; T e x t b y A lka G u p t a , S y e d S aa d A h m e d

poll/politics
Bihar Poll Theme:
Fifteen Vs Fifteen
As Nitish replays old vinyl titled ‘RJD jungle raj’, Lalu’s son says—
CM doesn’t have anything to show other than the Yadav family
Giridhar Jha
T
he clouds of uncertainty
hovering over the upcoming
Bihar assembly elections have
not dispersed yet, with the Election
Commission still mulling ways to hold it
on time in the midst of a global pande­
mic, but rival parties have already girded
up their loins for a bitter battle ahead.
Even though there is no official word
as yet on whether the voters in Bihar—
the first state to go to polls in the
post-coronavirus scenario—will be able
to elect a new government as per sched-
ule in October-November this year,
there appears to be no ambiguity about
14 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020
what would be the main poll plank
this time around: it will be 15 years of
Nitish Kumar versus 15 years of Lalu
Prasad Yadav.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar will com-
plete 15 years in power in November and
aim for his fourth consecutive victory in
the polls since the NDA ended the
15-year reign of the RJD government
under his leadership in 2005. From 1990
to 2005, Lalu and his wife, Rabri Devi,
had shared the chief ministership, before
Nitish scripted three poll victories in a
row in the next decade-and-a-half. For a
few months, of course, Nitish had
handed over the chief minister’s chair to
his one-time protégé Jitan Ram Manjhi
after the crushing defeat of JD(U) in the
Photographs: Sonu Kishan
Finding his mojo Bihar CM Nitish Kumar
(centre) with party colleagues.
2014 Lok Sabha polls and also shared
power for some time with the RJD after
the 2015 assembly elections. But now,
the battlelines appear to have been
clearly drawn between the archrivals
who look all set to make claims and
counterclaims over their respective
15-year tenures to vie for the voters’
attention in the run-up to the polls.
Nitish made it clear when he set out to
address the block-level JD(U) workers
via video-conferencing to make them
battle-ready. Exhorting the party cadre,
he impressed upon them the need for
apprising the new generation of voters
about what kind of governance Bihar
had witnessed during the 15-year rule of
the RJD government between 1990 and
2005. “Remember, what kind of prob-
lems people had to endure during the
reigns of pati-patni (Lalu and Rabri),” he
told them. “Tell all about it to the new
voters who will cast their votes for the
very first time now. They must have been
three or four years old when our govern-
ment came to power. They are 18 years
old now but may not have any idea about
the situation that prevailed prior to our
regime…Tell them that the law and order
poll/politics
situation was so bad that people avoided
coming out of their homes after dusk.”
From the rise in Maoist violence to the
pitiable condition of roads, electricity
supply and healthcare, Nitish has set out
to highlight the ‘failures’ of the RJD gov-
ernment during his sessions with the
JD(U) cadre. He says that the 15-year
per­iod preceding the NDA regime was
an era of massacres and kidnappings.
“Bihar has come out of that period now
and the law of the land has been re-
stored. But remember how Maoist vio-
lence had reared its head back then,” he
said. “It was only after we began amelio-
rating the lot of the poor and marginal-
ised people that the situation improved
otherwise even the court had once ob-
served back then that Bihar had turned
into a jungle raj (lawless state).”
Asserting that healthcare was in such a
bad state that the government hospitals
saw more animals than patients in their
wards, he says that previous government
did precious little for the state’s develop-
ment. “Ask the Opposition what it did
during those 15 years in power? What
was the condition of the roads and the
power supply in the state? What was the
budget of the state like back then? Was
anything done for infrastructure devel-
opment or in any other field?” he said.
Taking a cue from their leader, other
JD(U) leaders have also started raising
the pitch of their criticism of the previ-
ous RJD regime. On Lalu’s 73th birthday
on June 11, Neeraj Kumar, the party’s
inf­ormation and public relations minis-
ter, released a list of 73 properties alleg-
edly owned by the family members of
RJD supremo through surreptitious
ways. “The RJD president has acquired
many properties in the name of his two
sons and even an unknown third son in
lieu of giving employment to people in
the past,” he alleged. “Apart from Tej
Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav, properties
have been registered in the name of one
Tarun Kumar, whose father’s name has
been mentioned as Lalu Prasad Yadav in
the documents. Who is this third son of
Lalu Prasad Yadav?” he asked.
Stung by Nitish’s sharp criticism of the
respective tenures of his parents,
Tejashwi Prasad Yadav hit back, saying if
Lalu Prasad was corrupt, why did Nitish
join hands with him to form a coalition
government with his party in the state in
2015? “Bihar will get nothing by your
personal attacks on me. We are used to
Outlookindia.com
these derogatory attacks from last 30
years from all of you. Focus on real iss­
ues, not my family (sic),” he tweeted.
Lalu’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti, a
Rajya Sabha MP, clarified that Tarun was
the other name of Tejashwi.
Tejashwi, who is the leader of the opp­
osition in the Bihar assembly, said the
chief minister and his ally, the BJP,
would do well to focus on the real issues
concerning the state, especially in the
wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Nitish Kumar and the BJP must con-
centrate on real ground issues vis-à-vis
unemployment, law and order,
Tejashwi asks: If
Lalu was corrupt,
why Nitish formed
a coalition with
him in 2015?
migration , labourers, corruption.
Communalism, governance, develop-
ment, education and health
infrastructure etc,” he said.
Tejashwi told the chief minister that
even after being in power for 15 years,
“your political employment in my
family’s name says you’ve nothing to
showcase”. “Your disastrous term will
end very soon. It’s about time to pull
down the facades and let the people of
Bihar know immortality (sic) and
corruption,” he tweeted.
Tejashwi has accused Nitish of having
confined himself to home all through the
lockdown. In protest, the RJD has now
planned to beat drums across the state
on June 24 if Nitish does not come out in
public by then. The RJD has also re-
leased a set of questions asking the
Nitish government, among other things,
to explain as to how many jobs it had
provided to people in the past 15 years.
The party has also sought the district
and caste-wise details of all the
appointments made by the Nitish gov-
ernment in this period. “How many fac-
tories and industries have been set up
and how many people migrated to other
states in search of livelihood in 15 years
since 2005,” the party asks.
Refuting Nitish’s allegations about
the previous RJD’s regime, Jagdanand
Singh, the party’s state president, says
that his party had handed over a rather
peaceful Bihar to the NDA government
in 2005. “In 2005, Bihar had witnessed
only 108 incidents of crime per lakh
against the national average of 165,”
he said. “In 2019, Bihar’s figures have
risen to 222.”
Challenging Nitish for a debate on the
issue, Singh said that the Bihar’s crime
figures were only 141 per lakh when his
party had come to power in 1990, which
were reduced to 108 by the end of its
15-year tenure.
But it has made no difference to the
NDA’s campaign against the RJD.
Senior BJP leader and deputy chief
minister Sushil Kumar Modi said that
1.35 lakh people from the backward sec-
tions had failed to get jobs during the
reigns of Lalu and Rabri. “Vacancies for
5 lakh government jobs could not be
filled b
­ ecause of the empty coffers of
the state government during the RJD
regime,” he says. “Had those vacancies
been filled, 1.35 lakh people from the
backward sections of society would
have got employment.”
The ruling coalition’s salvos on the
RJD come close on the heels of the ass­
ertion of Union home minister Amit
Shah that the NDA government would
again be formed in Bihar under the lead-
ership of Nitish Kumar. Lalu’s “lawless”
regime has always remained the key
issue in successive elections in Bihar
and going by the ongoing slugfest, it is
not likely to be any different now. Even
though the Nitish government has had a
big basket of achievements of its own to
hit the campaign trail with, it apparently
wants to fall back upon on its tried and
tested ammunition: the bogey of Lalu’s
‘jungle raj’ which has helped it script
victory in poll after poll. O
j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 15
Tamil Nadu/Politics
Chancy
Gambits
Amidst bungling, Tamil Nadu’s
Dravidian parties spar over
pandemic relief
G.C. Shekhar in Chennai
T
he COVID-19 pandemic may
have stalled the world economy
and thrown millions out of
employment, but politicians cannot
consign their trade to a deep freeze for
long. Indian politicians, bestirring
themselves after a long lockdown, are
back in business in Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh and West Bengal. In Tamil
Nadu, the entrenched one-upmanship
between the ruling AIADMK and its
rival DMK and the internal power
games within the parties themselves
have taken an unfortunate toll on the
fight against the coronavirus.
Out to prove slippages and faults in
the government’s relief measures, the
DMK, at the behest of political advisor
Prashant Kishor, had rolled out the ‘Let
Us Unite’ programme to deliver such
material directly to beneficiaries. Party
president M.K. Stalin led the
exercise in person, compelling other
DMK leaders to follow suit by directly
handing over relief. The message aimed
at? The DMK was stepping up efforts
since the government has “failed” in its
duty to provide succour.
But the party paid a huge price when
top leader and district secretary
J. Anbazhagan died after showing up for
relief distribution. He was found to be
Covid positive. The death of the feisty
MLA was ironic, since he alone had
openly opposed the diktats of Prashant
Kishor’s team to deploy senior DMK
functionaries. “Little boys with no expe-
rience in politics are giving orders to
people like us who have fought a dozen
elections,” he had complained to Stalin.
Anbazhagan’s death has so shaken the
DMK that the party has halted ‘Let Us
Unite’ and directed senior leaders not to
venture out. “Whether the ruling party
16 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020
Covid duty—Chennai is a pandemic hot zone, with cases spiking out of control
or the Opposition, these programmes
are staged for television cameras for
publicity. In this melee all precautions
and protocols are thrown to the wind,”
says political analyst Rangaraj Pandey.
But Sekar Babu, DMK MLA from
Chennai’s Harbour constituency, argues
that elected representatives cannot
afford to stay away from active field duty.
“If we are not seen during this crisis the
same voters will ask why we were miss-
ing. We can take precautions but have to
do public service,” he explains.
Meanwhile, with Chennai and its sur-
roundings registering over 1, 500 posi-
tive cases every day, the ruling AIADMK
is having a hard time. Desperate to con-
tain the damage, chief minister
K. Palaniswami first replaced the health
secretary with a more experienced
administrator. He then announced a
12-day lockdown for Chennai and
surrounding districts from June 19,
hoping to slow down the spread.
However, the CM’s plans were quickly
undone by his ministers and officials.
Rather than ensuring the availability of
Instead of leading
the anti-Covid fight,
health minister
C. Vijayabaskar
threatened
concerned public
figures, flouted
distancing norms.
PTI
hospital beds, health minister C.
Vijayabaskar was busy threatening pub-
lic figures who had red-flagged the
shortage of beds and had urged the pub-
lic to stay indoors. He also brazenly
flouted social distancing norms in a
show of public distribution of relief ma-
terial and a gala inauguration of projects
in his home district.
Chennai’s corporation commissioner
Prakash, meanwhile, went beyond his
brief to announce that everyone testing
for COVID-19 would have to be in
self-quarantine. Since this could effec-
tively scare the public from even show-
ing up for testing, the health secretary
had to clarify that they should remain at
home only till results arrived.
“Since the commissioner is an appoin-
tee of the powerful local administra-
tion minister S.P. Velumani, he is able
to get away with goof-ups. Any other
government would have transferred
him for the manner in which he has
mismanaged the COVID-19 situation
in Chennai. But due to Velumani’s
blessings, he continues to be a stum-
bling block in Chennai’s fight against
the virus,” observes political commen-
tator ‘Tharasu’ Shyam.
Rather than focus on combating
the pandemic, the EPS government
also chose this inopportune time to
change the names of cities and towns
to match their Tamil phonetic names.
The move invited universal scorn. “We
need hospital beds, not name boards
with new spellings,” quipped Congress
MP Karti Chidambaram. In Tamil
Nadu, obvious priorities are being
shoved aside by politicians. O
 Presented by

HigHer education:
adapting to tHe new normal

Dr. Sunil Rai

Vice Chancellor, UPES

In conversation with
Ramanada Sengupta
Consulting Editor, Outlook

To Register, visit: outlookindia.com

join us on
@outlookindia @outlookmagazine
on
June 21, Sunday, 6:00pm
O p i n i o n / Aishe Ghosh
Den of Democracy
Efforts to undermine JNU are actually attacks on the democratic idea of India
Aishe Ghosh speaks after masked goons attacked her on the JNU campus in January
for many of us, JNU is not just
a university. It is an idea
that has changed several
lives, making JNU a beacon
of hope for young people in India. It is
here that I could find the joy of learning
for the first time. And this year the
National Institute Ranking Framework
ranked JNU as the second-best institu-
tion in the university category for its
contribution to research and teaching.
This is the fourth consecutive time JNU
has made it to this list prepared by the
Union ministry of human resource
develop­ment, though it has been in the
news mostly as a “hub of anti-nation-
als” situated just 10 km away from the
Union ministry of home affairs.
I had come to JNU with a limited idea
about Indian campuses. My imagination
of education was limited to bookish
understanding, but my teachers, com-
rades and classmates made me realise
that it is a way of acquiring the source of
18 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020
P r e s i d e n t, J N U S t u d e n t s ’ U n i o n
knowledge. I learnt that at JNU there is no limit to learning. Quite surprised
and still figuring out meanings between the lines, I later found myself hop-
ping from a lecture on economics by Prabhat Patnaik to another by Ira
Bhaskar, a professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics. Evenings and
post-dinner were mostly spent rushing from listening to, say, poet and
documentary film-maker Gauhar Raza at one hostel dining hall to relishing
a screening at another.
Established in 1969 through an act of Parliament, the JNU we know today
was formed through years of debate, dissent and churning of ideas in which
the student community contributed significantly, starting from the early
years. From the formation of the stu-
dents’ union with its unique autonomy
to penning down the JNU constitution,
It has been a sad the students practically weaved a func-
tional and participatory democracy.
state of affairs There were debates on how the univer-
sity could support students coming
to see our home, from marginalised sections, leading to a
built brick by brick new framework of ‘deprivation points’
and ensuring a unique admission pol-
with diverse ideas, icy. The students’ union also brought in
being purposefully the concept of ‘student-faculty com-
mittee’ to ensure participation of stu-
homogenised. dents in formulating the academic
O p i n i o n / Aishe Ghosh

programmes of the university. answered with #NotAnInchBack. We

In the late 1990s, just after the Vishakha judgment on sexual harassment knew as a community that universities
in the workplace, JNU saw a movement to form a gender sensitisation com- aren’t private property and safeguarding
mittee against sexual harassment (GSCASH) when Vijoo Krishnan, now them for the future generations is
joint secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, was the JNUSU president. In important so that no one in this country
the summer of 1974, JNU students decided to march outside campus to sup- is left behind when it comes to higher
port an all-India general strike. During the Emergency (1975-77), there was education. After 80 days of struggle and
a crackdown at JNU and several students were put behind bars. In 1991, dur- following the intervention of the Delhi
ing the anti-Mandal agitations, JNU students fought in defence of OBC res- High Court, the JNU administration
ervations. Be it these and many more such examples, or the brutal attack by had to step back and accept the
goons inside campus this January, the students have bravely faced every sit- demands of students.
uation, leaving a benchmark for the students’ movement in this country. The past few months have been diffi-
Over the past four years, JNU has seen a concerted effort by right-wing cult. Students have been arrested and
Hindutva groups along with the charged under the sedition law and the
ruling BJP-RSS to malign it. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
current vice chancellor is alleg- But, juggling between the tags of
edly close to the RSS and many #AntiNational to #FreeLoaders, JNU
new faculty members too are has always stood strong in defence of
said to be from the same ideolog- its idea of democratic India—a country
ical-political camp. No wonder where the money of taxpayers is spent
efforts to whitewash the historic on the education and healthcare of
struggle of the student commu- people so they can contribute to soci-
nity have been intensified. ety, and where women and marginal-
JNU is a microcosm of this ised communities are empowered as
country. It reflects the society at Savitribai Phule and Babasaheb
large, along with its problems, Ambedkar had envisioned. As Bhagat
and is also a lab where we experi- Singh taught, we never bow down in
ment and create our under- front of our oppressors whether in
standing of how we, as part of campus or outside, and that is why we
society, could find a framework still carry comrade Chandrashekhar,
of solutions at an individual level former JNU students’ union president
or as a community. JNU has al- We learn every- who was shot dead in Bihar in 1997, in
ways taught us to be humans our hearts with pride more than we
first. As inscribed in the statue of
where…even mourn his death.
Jawaharlal Nehru that stands in when we are in the JNU has moulded students to study
front of the Admi-nistration society and that is why the academic
Block, “a university stands for streets fighting for work of JNU students has excelled in
humanism”. To understand a
problem at the individual level as
a students’ issue several fields. The learning of any theme
has never been on the basis of a particu-
an issue for the whole commu- or giving solidarity lar subjective idea, but on a more ra-
nity, critically think about it and tional, empirical and scientific
try to solve it—this is what to others. understanding of society. We learn
makes JNU stand apart. when we are in the streets fighting for a
The VC and his team, however, students’ issue or giving solidarity to
have left no stone unturned to others. We learn from every nook and
change the very concept of JNU—from the #ShutDownJNU campaign in corner of our society; we experiment
2016, the forced disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed, a student who was beaten with what we read, refuting ideas that
up by the ABVP, the scuttling of reservation and just doing away with the are taught and creating new ones.
unique admission policy, dismantling the GSCASH and supporting sexual Universities are the spaces that mould
offenders to the process of dismantling the students’ union. It has been a the future generations and safeguarding
very sad state of affairs to see our home, built brick by brick with diverse them is important because the assault
ideas, being purposefully homogenised. Destroying JNU isn’t about destroy- on freedom of thought, critical thinking
ing a ‘den for terrorists’ as right-wing Hindutva groups claim; it is about and dissent will lead to a psychology of
breaking the backbone of our democracy, besides shattering the dreams of fear, which isn’t good for the future of
lakhs of students who aspire to join JNU. the country. It is still a long way to “the
Last October, when students were protesting for their right to accessible heaven of freedom” that Rabindranath
and affordable education, JNU was shown as a hotbed of turmoil and a uni- Tagore described as “where the mind is
versity wasting taxpayers’ money. Inspired by the farmers’ long marches, the without fear, and the head is held high,
JNU students’ union led at least three long marches. Brutally attacks by the where knowledge is free….” O
police and vicious media trials couldn’t put down the spirit of students, who (Views are personal)

Outlookindia.com j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 19
Cover Story
Cover Story
India/china
China

Blood on the DAULAT BAIG OLDI

AKSAI CHIN

barbed wire
GALWAN

LEH HOT SPRING

LADAKH Shyok
Darbuk
PANGONG TSO

Demchok

MAP NOT TO SCALE

RIVER
LINE OF ACTUAL CONTROL

LAC

Galwan river

Named after Ladakhi explorer Ghulam Rasool
Galwan, the Galwan river flows west from
Aksai Chin to converge with the Shyok
in Ladakh. It slices through high-altitude
mountains and the peaks overlook the
valleys and passes—especially a stretch of
India’s 255-km Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg
Oldi road running close to Galwan valley.
Although a fierce battle was fought in
1962 in Galwan valley, the area has been
peaceful since. Chinese transgressions have
been mostly concentrated in Pangong Tso,
Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldi. But China
perceives the new road as a threat to Aksai
Chin, and the Tibet-Xinjiang highway. It wants
to control the heights in Galwan valley.
This summer, Chinese soldiers entered
Galwan valley and billeted in camps, leading
to an Indian pushback. They exchanged
blows, threw stones...(an informal agreement
forbids troops from carrying guns in the
buffer area). On June 15/16, the Chinese
attacked Indian troops with nail-studded
clubs, killing 20 and capturing ten.

20 o u tlook | june 29, 2020 G raphics b y P raveen K umar . G

Cover Story
India/china

Bhavna Vij-Aurora

Can war and pestilence come together? A

pandemic is already upon us, akin to a haemor-
rhage for the body of systems and resources
that make up a nation. A war is no less severe:
the blood loss it entails is of another (if equally
real) sort; the debility it causes gradually
leaches into the economy too. Can the body
even take two extreme stressors, two co-mor-
bidities, at once? India came close to testing
that proposition this week, with the violent
India-China face-off at Galwan in eastern
Ladakh making world headlines. No bullets
were fired, but so blood-soaked was the episode Colonel B. Santosh Babu, 8 Bihar Regiment,
and a native of Telangana’s Suryapet district,
that it was described as the biggest military  was among 19 Indian soldiers killed by
Chinese troops in the Galwan clash
confrontation between the two countries in
over five decades. Even as New Delhi claimed

military and diplomatic engagement had de-escalated a testy
situation, Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers,
armed with iron rods and batons wrapped in barbed wire,
att­acked Indian troops in an unprecedented and brutal com-
bat, killing 20 of them.
Several deaths also occurred as soldiers fell off the cliffs
that line the narrow Galwan valley into the river. Troops had
massed on narrow ridges for close combat, caused mudslides
and cave-ins at altitudes of 15,000 feet. Most of the soldiers
had bruises and blunt but fatal injuries. Some of them died
by drowning in the freezing waters of Galwan river, which
flows from Aksai Chin into Ladakh. Initial reports had also
spoken of an unspecified number of Indian soldiers missing
after the bloody fracas, but the Indian Army on Thursday
said all soldiers were accounted for. The PLA’s unconfirmed
casualties range between 35-40; China has admitted to los-
ing men, without specifying the number.
The Indian government, for long conspicuously guarded in
its response to the Galwan issue, has been forced to open up
in the face of criticism by Opposition parties. In his first pub-
lic statement on the PLA attack during his video conference
with chief ministers on June 17, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi proclaimed that the sacrifices of soldiers, who fought
till their last breath, will not be in vain. “India wants peace
but is capable of giving a befitting reply if provoked,” he said.
With reports of frontier infractions by the PLA filtering in
for over a month, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been
consistently questioning the government about Ladakh and
asking if the Chinese had occupied Indian territory. Now,
after India has lost 20 soldiers, references are being made to
the asymmetry in response compared to other episodes: the
surgical strike and air-strike against Pakistan after the Uri
and Pulwama terror attacks, respectively.
India had launched surgical strikes across the LoC when 19
soldiers lost their lives in the Uri attack of 2016. National
Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted on June 16:
“Herein lies the problem with a very public ownership (in a
marked departure from previous governments) of the surgi-
cal strikes after Uri and Pulwama. How does one react to sol-
diers’ deaths in Ladakh at the hands of a much stronger force
As India lost 20 soldiers,
references are being made to
the asymmetry in response...
the surgical strike against
Pakistan after Uri.

Outlookindia.com j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 21
Cover Story
India/china

PANGONG TSO
The trigger for the face-off was Chi-
na’s stiff opposition to India laying a India Clame Line
key road in the Finger areas around the
Pangong Tso lake, where the Line of
Actual Control is blurred. It is a site of
several confrontations in the past.

India’s claim
Chinese
Chinese tresspass motorable road India claims territory up to
China claims land up Finger 8 on the northern
to this point, close to shore of the lake. (The points
where the slopes jut into the lake
Indian posts at Finger 3 are known as fingers).
Indian
motorable
road

Chinese border posts

Indian border posts

The crisis in Pangong Tso deteriorated after The road along Pangong Tso is crucial for India Chinese soldiers transgressed into the Indian
around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers to carry out patrols. India has already decided side, erecting tents and posts. They ignored
fought with bare hands, rods, rocks on May 5 not to stall any border infrastructure projects repeated verbal warnings, triggering a yelling
and 6—followed by a brawl in Sikkim on May 9. in eastern Ladakh despite Chinese protests. match, stone-throwing and even fistfights.

22 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020

Cover Story
India/china

without appearing weak or reckless?” Like many others,

Omar was questioning the promise of muscular nationalism
that the BJP-led government had held out to the Indian pub-
lic. Saffron party leaders and even spokespersons had been
asked to refrain from commenting on the China standoff
that was on since end-April. Even home minister Amit Shah
did not make any reference to China during his virtual
rally on June 8, when he said after the US and Israel, India
was the only country capable of protecting its borders, and
went on to mention the surgical strikes and the airstrikes
against Pakistan.
After the violent June 15 face-off, cautious voices have
started coming from the BJP, saying it is actually a marker of
the government’s proactive policy with regard to protecting its
borders and building infrastructure and roads. Party president
J.P. Nadda tweeted: “The borders of India are and will remain
intact under the prime-ministership of Shri @narendra-
modi…” The message from the party is that while there will be
restraint in statements, there will be no let-up on the ground.
B.L. Santosh, general secretary (organisation), tweeted: “The
Indian forces have engaged in an unprecedented face-off with

India is wary of China because

of historical mistrust and also
recent happenings, like a simi-
lar standoff in Doklam in 2017.

Two to Tango? PM Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping

Chinese troops in Galwan valley & Pangong Tso in Leh region.
Indian efforts at building infrastructure on a never-before
scale increased Chinese worries….”
Foreign policy and defence experts explain the apprehen-
sion with which India engages with China as against
Pakistan. Strategic and foreign policy analyst Seshadri Chari
believes it is because of the economic and military asymme-
try between the two countries. “The China-India military
asymmetry is the other side of India-Pakistan military asym-
metry,” he explains. However, the situation is changing.
“Indian navy is stronger than the Chinese. Indian air power
can also inflict damage on China but China still has the adv­
antage in land warfare,” he adds. A military advisor, not
wanting to be identified, says it is not just a trait of this gov-
ernment: all previous governments, including Congress ones,
have been reticent when it comes to talking about such
developments with China. “I remember asking a Congress
minister to raise a China-related issue in Parliament, he
outright refused.”
India is wary of China because of historical mistrust and
also recent happenings, like a similar standoff in Doklam in
2017. That occurred around the same time-span that wit-
nessed global developments related to China, including
America’s ill-advised pull-out from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP). This time too, the Ladakh conflict comes
had an informal summit at Mamallapuram, near Chennai, in October
2019. Both have met at least 18 times since Modi became PM in 2014.
against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic sparking a
renewed burst of Sino-US animus.
“While people were reading the tea-leaves about China’s
next move, there came the informal summit between Prime
Minister Modi and Xi Jingping in Wuhan and the do’s and
don’ts were put in place. However, the so-called Wuhan
spirit was destroyed even before the ink on the agreement
could dry,” says Chari, an RSS ideologue. He recounts the fact
that the Chinese president confirmed his visit to
Mamallapuram only 48 hours before the scheduled date.
“China follows a hit-and-run strategy. Their whole idea is to
create as many pockets for bartering as possible in what is
the ‘early harvest’ theory for a border solution, where the
border is not taken in its entirety but in smaller pieces,”
explains Chari.
Former army chief General V.P. Malik calls it “salami slic-
ing”. The general, who led India to victory in the Kargil war,
dismisses all comparisons between Galwan and the 1999
conflict with Pakistan. “Kargil was on a much larger front;
this is localised in Galwan valley. Even the political and mili-
tary objective was quite different. India’s relations with both

Outlookindia.com j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 23
Cover Story
India/china

Present In Past Tense

India inherited from the British a 3,268-km disputed frontier
with China, called the Line of Actual Control from Arunachal
Pradesh to Ladakh—and another 220 km when Sikkim joined
India in 1975. The border row—unresolved, mostly undefined—
has sparked serious confrontations between the two Asian
giants. China took Akchai Chin in 1962 and claims Arunachal
Pradesh as part of southern Tibet, while India contests it.
AKSAI CHIN
Ladakh
Himachal LAC
Pradesh CHINA
2017 DOKLAM
India and China had a months-long
high-altitude standoff in Bhutan’s Doklam
region after the Indian army sent troops to
stop China constructing a road in the area.
The Doklam plateau is strategically signifi-
cant as it gives China access to the so-
called “chicken’s neck”—a thin strip of land
connecting the northeastern states with
the rest of the country. It is claimed by
both China and Bhutan, an ally of India.
The issue was resolved after talks.

Uttarakhand
Doklam
LINE OF
ACTUAL
CONTROL Nepal Arunachal
Pradesh
Bhutan

Nathu La, Tulung La, 43 km

1962 SINO-INDIAN WAR
Chinese troops poured over the fron-
tier in 1962 during a row over the bor-
der’s demarcation. It sparked a
four-week war that left thousands
dead before China’s forces withdrew.
Beijing retained Aksai Chin, a strategic
corridor linking Tibet to western China.
India still claims the entire Aksai Chin
as its own. In the Northeast, Chinese
troops invaded Tawang in Arunachal
Pradesh—then NEFA—and reached
almost up to Assam.
Sikkim
1967 NATHU LA
Another flashpoint was Nathu La, a
mountain pass in Sikkim (then a
kingdom, but an Indian protector-
ate)—sandwiched between Bhutan,
Chinese-ruled Tibet and Nepal.
During a series of clashes in Nathu
La and Cho La, some 80 Indian sol-
diers died and India counted up to
400 Chinese casualties.
from Tawang
1975 TULUNG LA
This skirmish was the last time shots
were officially reported to have been fired
across the disputed border. Four Indian
soldiers were ambushed and killed along
the dividing line in Arunachal Pradesh.
New Delhi blamed Beijing for crossing into
Indian territory, a claim dismissed by
China. (The death of 20 Indian soldiers
on June 15/16, 2020, in eastern Ladakh’s
Galwan valley is a first in 45 years.)

24 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020

 Cover Story
India/china
Naib Subedar Satnam Singh’s funeral procession at his village in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district
the countries are on a different plane, being more extensive
with China,” Gen Malik tells Outlook. However, escalation
can have serious consequences, he cautions. “If there is a
larger conflict with China, it will affect India’s huge areas of
interaction with China—much higher than any possible
impact vis-à-vis Pakistan,” he says.
He welcomes the interaction between external affairs min-
ister S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi over
the phone in which India reiterated that the “unprecedented
development will have a serious impact on the bilateral rela-
tionship.” Jaishankar urged the Chinese side to reassess its
actions and take corrective steps. Gen Malik suggests the first
and foremost condition must be that China withdraws to the
original LAC. “The two neighbours must discuss how to avoid
such incidents in the future. The LAC must be delineated on
the map to avoid such confrontations,” he says. “The effort
should be to avoid a war but if it cannot be avoided, we have
to be fully prepared,” he adds.
By all accounts, India is not taking any chances. To begin with,
the government has decided to engage with Opposition parties
to send the message that the country stands united at this hour.
An all-party meeting on June 19 marks that unity. Former ex-
ternal affairs minister Yashwant Sinha, though, says the gov-
ernment should have reached out to the Opposition much
earlier. “This is the first thing the late Atal Behari Vajpayee
would have done…two months ago. The Opposition should
have been taken into confidence earlier, especially since
Outlookindia.com
India is not taking any chances.
The government has decided
to engage with the Opposition
to send the message that the
country stands united.
Parliament is not in session,” he tells Outlook. Sinha also exp­
resses concern that this the first time China is claiming sover-
eignty over Galwan, a territory on the Indian side since 1962.
The PLA’s trespassing into Indian territory and securing of
heights in the Galwan river area makes the Darbuk-Shyok-
Daulat Beg Oldi (DSDBO) Road vulnerable. The PLA had
promised disengagement and retreat to original positions
during military-level talks; instead it erected fresh tents at a
vantage position on the south bank of the Galwan river. The
position atop Galwan valley is also known as Patrol Point 14.
It overlooks the DSDBO road, just 5 km away; the Galwan
river, flowing westerly through the narrow valley, joins the
river Shyok. The Indian army asked the Chinese to remove
the tents, as agreed during the talks. However, the Chinese
refused to comply, resulting in an altercation and violent
j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t loow k 25
Cover Story
India/china
clash. “It cannot grab by force any territory
that belongs to India. My advice to the gov-
ernment is not to go by the 1962 example
but by the 1967 military engagement at
Nathu La in Sikkim. The Chinese did the
same thing in Nathu La but we held on to
the territory. We must recover the lost
territory that China has occupied,”
Sinha tells Outlook.
Nathu La was the last major military en-
gagement between the two armies: 88
Indian soldiers had lost their lives, and
over 300 PLA soldiers were killed. India
and China have signed various agreements
since 1993 for maintaining peace and tran-
quility on the border. But over the years,
China has liked to keep things in a tenuous
flux. Sinha warns that India and China
share a 3,500-km-long border and things
could heat up in other sectors like Sikkim
or Arunachal Pradesh. “India has to be
prepared. There are areas where we have
tactical advantage; in others China has the
edge. We have to defend where we don’t
have tactical advantage and put pressure
where we have the edge. It has to be tit for
tat,” the former minister says.
A
ccording to sources, India has
started moving additional troops,
heavy artillery and weapons to
Ladakh and also to its other borders with
China. The navy ships are also moving and
the air force is galvanised too. “It is going to
be a long haul for the troops in the inhospi-
table terrain and weather as the deadlock
continues in Galwan valley, with both sides
continuing to hold their positions. The
major general-level talks between the two
sides are so far inconclusive,” a senior gov-
ernment officer says.
Defence strategy expert Brahma
Chellaney says India has been beating
around the bush for a month, not facing up
to the reality of Chinese aggression.
“Analysts have been saying no military ag-
gression possible, but PLA prepared for
war. This is a watershed moment which
will force India to review its China policy
and reorient its defence policy. India has
been losing territory to China over the
years through China’s incremental aggres-
sion. It has been nibbling at Indian terri-
tory but what has happened since
late-April marks a major escalation on
China’s part,” he says. According to him,
India extended a hand of friendship to
China. “Prime Minister Modi went out of
his way to befriend China and it has repaid
India by brazen aggression in Ladakh.” O
26 o u tlook | june 29, 2020
Pie In Every
Finger
Ladakh residents say the Chinese have been
gradually occupying land along the LAC for years
Naseer Ganai in Srinagar
R
igzin Spalbar saw it coming. “The Chinese army clashed with our sol-
diers on May 5. They had all kinds of weapons—iron rods, barbed wires
and knives. Why did we go unarmed this time?” asks the former chair-
man of the Ladakh Hill Development Council.
“What you saw on the border, we have been warning about for a long
time. China has been usurping our land for the past 70 years,” says Spalbar.
“This time, they have taken over higher points. Our soldiers used to patrol up
to Pangong Tso’s Finger 8 (The points where the slopes jut into the lake are
known as fingers). The Chinese have not only come up to Finger 4, but
also built a road. Same is the case at Galwan Nala. Now the road to Daulat
Beg Oldi is in their range. Unless they are pushed back or there is an
agreement to restore the earlier status of the LAC, they will continue
to move forward.”
Asgar Ali Karbali, a former legislator from the Kargil region, echoes
Spalbar’s statement. “China has been occupying land in Ladakh for the past
40 years—first inch by inch and now, kilometre after kilometre,” he says.
“Since the establishment of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), it
has been aggressively taking over the areas around its land routes.”
Urgain Chondon, chairperson, Nyoma block, has been uploading pictures of
Chinese troops’ activities along the LAC on Facebook. Chondon was the first
to highlight the Chinese movement along the LAC in the Tashi Gang area,
Demchok, in April this year. “I have videos and pictures of the Chinese bring-
ing heavy vehicles and constructing a road,” she says. “I got a call from Leh
saying my Facebook post was creating panic and was asked to delete it.”
“The four-week-long standoff in eastern Ladakh was more of a routine aff­
air. Such things happen where you don’t have clearly demarcated bounda-
ries,” says Jammu-based analyst Zafar Choudhary. “But unclear boundaries
create scope for deliberate escalation by one or the other party. China app­
ears to have done that deliberately.”
“China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is its biggest ambition in the 21st cen-
tury. CPEC, an essential part of BRI, runs through Gilgit-Baltistan, a part of the
erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir under Pakistan’s control since 1947,”
explains Choudhary. “India has the avowed policy of reclaiming the entire ter-
ritory of Jammu and Kashmir. This policy has become more pronounced after
August 5, 2019. Since then, China has been trying to foment diplomatic set-
backs for India, including by taking the Kashmir issue to the UNSC.”
Senior security officials in Kashmir say they are expecting cross-border
shelling to intensify along the LoC in the coming weeks. “It is rare for all of
Pakistan’s service chiefs to visit the ISI headquarters together for a briefing,
which they did on June 16,” says an officer. “Since the only thing discussed
at the meeting was the situation along the LoC/LAC and in Jammu and
Kashmir, we have to be alert.” O
Planet
Outlook
L e c t u r e S e r i e S

#PlanetOutlook

Birds and
PeoPle
By
Mark COCker
British Author,
Naturalist, Broadcaster
and Environmental Tutor

In conversation with
Ananda Banerjee, Editor, Special Projects, Outlook

Planet Outlook is our initiative to create awareness

as well as share ideas and efforts for proactive and
productive changes in policy and popular perception
for the conservation of our natural heritage.

JOiN us ON
on
June 24, Wednesday, 6:00 p.m.
Cover Story/Opinion

An IAF C-130J-30 Super Hercules makes a

historic landing at Daulat Beg Oldi in 2013

PTI

Snip A Forked Tongue

The equal cost imposed on China for its escalation at Galwan should
caution it against a further violation of the June 6 agreement. With
matching military strength in the area, both sides must ensure peace.

Lt Gen. Subrata Saha (retd)

on June 6, 2020, after nearly a month of aggressive

and violent face-offs at various points in eastern
Ladakh, India and China had agreed upon meas-
ures to de-escalate the situation and resolve is-
sues. Less than ten days later, on June 15, the most barbaric
and violent clash happened in Galwan, bringing the situation
back to the brink once again—perhaps more precariously
than at any time in the past 45 years.
The landscape in Galwan is tough high-altitude mountain-
ous terrain, and control over the heights overlooking the
mountain passes and river valleys determines who dominates
the area. This area is strategically important due to the vicin-
ity of the 255 km road running along the Shyok river valley,
from Darbuk to the area of Daulat Beg Oldi. The road is well
inside Indian territory, but the heights overlooking the
Galwan valley give it depth, and also overlook avenues of in-
gress and egress, to and from into each other’s territory.
India’s ability to build up in the Daulat Beg Oldi area,
using this road, is perceived as a threat to the Chinese Aksai
Chin area, and the highway linking Tibet to Xinjiang prov-
ince. To the North, the Daulat Beg Oldi area leads to the
Karakoram Pass, and Shaksgam Valley, illegally ceded by

28 o u tlook | june 29, 2020

Cover Story/Opinion

Pakistan to China in 1963. The reluctance to disengage and fall back to the lines agreed
The road from Darbuk to Daulat Beg Oldi has existed for in the June 6 meeting also point to the military importance
some years now, but it has had problems, with stretches of the that China attaches to the area. The Chinese statement of
road and bridges getting washed away. India’s success in com- Tuesday, June 16 was issued by a spokesperson of the Western
pleting a crucial bridge last year, after efforts of almost two Theatre Command, and the fact that for the first time the
decades, seems to have pushed China to the edge. Galwan area has been claimed as Chinese territory indicates
In 2013, India and China had got into a face-off in the the strategic intent and level at which the operation was
Depsang Plains, in the general area of Daulat Beg Oldi. In fact, planned. Going by the way the situation is unfolding, it ap-
the Depsang face-off marks the beginning of prolonged and pears the Chinese are buying time through negotiations, to
high-profile stand-off with PLA troops in this area. In 2014, build up their preparedness in the area. We can ill afford to
there was another protracted face-off in Chumar, further trust the PLA after what happened on June 15.
south. In the areas between Daulat Beg Oldi and Chumar, The outcome of the escalation is clearly visible from the
there have been frequent face-offs at Pangong Tso and casualties sustained. According to news agency ANI’s rep­
Demchok, and occasionally in other areas. orts, 43 PLA soldiers have died. Media reports refer to US
What we are witnessing now is in fact part of a larger malaise intelligence quoting 35 PLA dead.
in China’s attitude of objecting to India developing its border The cost imposed for escalation should bring in caution for
infrastructure. The number of face-offs, aggression, and lately the future. Both China and India have built up matching
violence, has been increasing almost concomitant to India’s strength to cater to any eventuality and lay the ground for fu-
increased focus towards developing border infrastructure in ture military action. It is in the interest of both the countries,
the last five to six years. There are several border area road to deescalate the situation. The PLA must abide by the agree-
and rail projects, and advanced landing ments made in the June 6 meeting and the
ground for aircraft under development. follow-up meetings. Status quo ante to posi-
China’s objection to these developments, That the Chinese tions of April 2020 must be restored.
stemming from a perceived threat that they The Chinese side have released a state-
alter the military status quo, is ludicrous. have claimed ment on Wednesday, June 17, alluding to a
On the evening of June 15, when Indian
troops were out to verify whether the disen-
Galwan as their conversation between the two External
Affairs Ministers, S. Jaishankar and Wang
gagement and pullback was happening, as territory for the Yi, stating that, “both sides agreed to deal
agreed in the June 6 corps command- fairly with the serious event caused by the
ers-level meeting, a terribly violent scuffle first time ever conflict in Galwan valley”. The Indian
took place. As per reports released by the indicates their MEA statement highlighted that the over-
Indian Army, a commanding officer and all situation would be handled in a respon-
nineteen soldiers died in the violent engage- strategic intent sible manner, and that both sides would
ment, and due to terrain related injuries. implement the disengagement under-
According to the statement released by
and planning. standing of June 6 sincerely. “Neither side
the ministry of external affairs a day later would take any action to escalate matters
on June 16, “While it was our [India’s] exp­ and instead, ensure peace and tranquility
ectation that the agreement would unfold smoothly, the as per bilateral agreements and protocols.”
Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Experience shows that disengagement and de-escalation
LAC in the Galwan valley.” While highlighting the need for after a crisis, do not end the potential for future conflict. If
maintaining peace and tranquility, and resolution of differ- any­thing, it enhances the preparedness for future contingen-
ences through dialogue, both the MEA and Indian Army cies. India has enough experience of dealing with eyeball to
statements have emphasised on India’s commitment to eyeball confrontation. If indeed peace and tranquility is the
ens­ure sovereignty and territorial integrity. intent, both sides must recognise that the existing protocols
The Chinese statement released on June 16 played the need urgent review for better border conduct, and an agree-
victim card, blaming India for seriously violating the agree- ment on the borders is a must, sooner rather than later.
ment and crossing the LAC, claiming that, “the sovereignty In the meanwhile, it is in India’s national interest to expedi-
over the Galwan valley area has always belonged to China”. tiously ramp up infrastructure development required to de-
This is yet another known Chinese method of obfuscating fend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Remote areas of
issues by playing with interpretations; first violate an the country need better connectivity, not only for military
agreement or understanding, create a dispute, blame the purposes, but also for economic development.
other side, and claim to be the victim. With casualties to Finally, let us not forget that Sun Tzu’s precepts propound
substantiate, the narrative becomes more convincing, and ‘winning without fighting’. China can go to any extent to find
repetitive broadcast makes the false seem like the truth. faultlines in our system and manipulate them to its advantage.
Galwan valley has never been considered a disputed area, Now that China is faced with a tough military and diplomatic
even though India and China fought a bitter battle here in stance, it is imperative that other cornerstones of power, like
1962. According to some historical accounts, India lost 36 sol- commerce and politics, come together for a united India. O
diers, while China lost over 800, whose mortal remains were
( T h e a u tho r is m e m b e r , N ationa l S ec u r it y A d v iso ry B oa r d , fo r m e r
recovered decades later. There have been no claims or dis- D e p u t y C hi e f of A r m y S taff and K ash m i r C o r ps C o m m and e r . Vi e w s
putes in Galwan ever since. e x p r e ss e d a r e p e r sona l . )

Outlookindia.com j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 29
Cover Story/Opinion

From a previous
fight­—Chinese
soldiers threaten
Indian troops

Livid
Eyes New Delhi failed to anticipate China’s reaction to the
change of the Indian map and its suspicion of Western
hands actuating India. Now, China uses the same
playbook on the ground that it used against India in
1962 and later against the USSR.

Vappala Balachandran

one cannot but be surprised at our political, histori-

cal and strategic naivety in underestimating the
likely Chinese reaction in what they feel are
siege situations against them. Any number of
signals had come to reveal their anger against India well be-
fore the present border stand-off which exp­loded on the
night of June 15. Yet we ignored all that, assessing that these
were due to their internal power struggle or that they
wanted to coerce us during the proposed WHO
inquiry on the origins of coronavirus.
Instead, we were fed with visuals of certain incidents
which we thought were due to our over-arching global influ-
ence, but which in the Chinese mind were provocations. The
first incident was on May 24, when two prominent BJP par-
liamentarians attended the “virtual swearing in ceremony”
on May 24, along with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
of the second term of Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen.
China lodged a formal protest, describing their attendance
as efforts to undermine its national integrity.
The second was on June 2, when President Donald Trump
invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the G-7 Summit
when the China border ‘stand-off’ was also discussed. Soon
thereafter, Russia suggested that without China’s presence
G-7 would be meaningless. China also ridiculed Trump’s at-
tempts “to draw a small circle” against Beijing.
The third was PM Modi’s ‘virtual summit’ with Australian
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on June 4 to conclude a ‘com-
prehensive strategic partnership’. Scott Morrison is a red rag
for China due to his alignment with Trump on the coronavi-
rus origins. He does not know how to overcome his own prob-
lem about Australian actor Karm Gilespie, who is facing a
death sentence in China on drug charges.
There were many such earlier incidents, which we should
have taken note of to prep are adequate border vigilance. We
failed to do that. In one of my recent columns on the border
stand-off I had referred to a 1970 top secret CIA case study of
the Chinese reaction to the then mighty Soviet Union on sim-
ilar border problems. The study had revealed the Chinese
habit of exacerbating border tensions when bilateral rela-
tions worsen: “Mao’s land claim was indeed part of the bitter
political feud, and Mao’s main goal was to extract a political
surrender, rather than small territorial concessions, as the
price for a final settlement”.
The paper also highlighted China’s double standards. The
concept of “Line of Actual Control”, which they had ins­
isted on India, was not demanded from the Soviets. “In
dealing with the Soviets the Chinese have maintained a
convenient silence on the ploy they used against the
Indians”. It also assessed that these border claims were
moves to provide Mao a political victory. Their tactics of
“pushing and shoving” on the Ussuri and Amur river basin
were intended to humiliate the Soviet Union. Finally, this
resulted in the 1969 skirmish and the brutal deaths of 59
Soviet soldiers, which unnerved the USSR. The paper also
said that Mao was prepared to “accept more punishment
for his forces than they thought he would” and he was “pre-
pared to live with a tense border situation indefinitely”.
Yet China would wait patiently for solving border problems
when bilateral relations improve. In 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev
made a conciliatory speech at Vladivostok which was received

30 o u tlook | june 29, 2020

Cover Story/Opinion

well by Deng Xiaoping, who set aside “intractable issues” to be border accords signed by India.
solved by “future generations”. The final settlement signed on That this new map was strongly objected to at higher lev-
June 2, 2005 was beneficial to China, as Russia parted with els in the Chinese leadership was not known publicly in
the upstream end of Bear Island to China, thereby restoring India. This was known only on June 12 this year when a
Fuyuan Channel to it as its inland waterway. national daily released a report by the China Institutes of
Chinese assertiveness and arrogance increased with simul- Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), linking
taneous border agreements with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan the present LAC tension to the new map. According to the
and Tajikistan, which had inherited some of the border issues daily, this report, for the first time, criticised the new map
after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. All of them which “posed a challenge to the sovereignty of Pakistan and
were enticed with liberal financial aid, although in the long China”. The report was distributed by the Chinese embassy
run they are the losers by accepting the leasing of large tracts in Islamabad. It said that the new map “forced China into
of land to Chinese farmers who are building enclaves within the Kashmir dispute, stimulated China and Pakistan to
these countries. Already, local agitations have erupted. take counter actions on the Kashmir issue and dramatically
In 1971 and 1972 China considered India as Soviet Union’s increased the difficulty in resolving the border issue be-
surrogate as the transcripts of Zhou-Enlai-Kissinger and tween China and India”.
Zhou-Enlai-Nixon talks would indicate. Zhou blamed Nehru Also, the report revealed that the Chinese foreign minister
for claiming “their” Aksai-Chin plateau from 1956 onwards had voiced “his strong opposition” to our external affairs min-
under Nikita Khrushchev’s instigation. In 1972, Zhou inc­ ister S. Jaishankar during his visit last year following the abro-
luded Indira Gandhi among China’s adversaries for threat- gation of Article 370. “The week before the August visit, Union
ening Pakistan. China’s opinion about India home minister Amit Shah had spoken in
improved after Rajiv Gandhi’s epoch making
visit in 1988, although it came after the 1987 China is using the Parliament about taking back Pakistan
Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin.
Sumdorong Chu valley stand-off. same language... The most important remark to be noted in
For about 10 years things were normal till the CICIR report is that India’s ‘double con-
May 13, 1998, when New York Times pub- The 1962 attack fidence’ behind the change of maps is due to
lished the leaked letter of Prime Minister its 2019 election victory and that the United
Vajpayee to President Bill Clinton, blaming
was to insult States and some other Western countries
China for our nuclear tests during the same Nehru, while ‘puffed India up from an ideological point of
year. That rekindled China’s suspicion that view’ to hedge ‘against China’,” the article in
we were gravitating towards the US to en- the 2020 attack the daily noted.
circle them. The same fears were confirmed is to discredit Foreign minister Jaishankar, with his vast
since 2014, when our strategic relations experience of Chinese leadership, should
with America were raised to a higher level Narendra Modi. have anticipated Chinese reaction on the
by Prime Minister Modi. A number of inci- ground at a time of their choosing. Did he
dents had confirmed their fears. catalyse our better border vigilance?
On June 3, 2019, Open Democracy, a UK based political web- Immediately after the incident on June 16, Chinese
site published a piece, titled India and America collude to dis- Foreign Minister Wang Yi seized the early propaganda ad-
rupt China-Pakistan Economic Corridor . It contained vantage by accusing India of “violating the consensus of the
sensational allegations that the US was out to unsettle two sides by illegally crossing the border twice and carrying
Pakistan’s Balochistan, the heart of CPEC, with Indian help. It out provocative attacks on Chinese soldiers, resulting in se-
alleged that RAW via its proxies had “propagated” numerous rious physical clashes”.
murders of Chinese engineers in Balochistan, and that the Compared to that, India’s reaction, especially by our ex-
Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), supported by India, had at- ternal affairs ministry, was feeble, confused and delayed.
tacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi in November 2018. We were not even able to issue a statement to the dis-
On February 6, 2020 the Lok Sabha was informed that the traught public giving details. Even the casualty figures
government had conveyed its concerns to the Chinese on the could not be confirmed till 10 pm on the 16th. Even now
‘China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’ (CPEC), which passed this is tentative. There was not even unanimity on whether
through those parts of the Union Territories of Jammu and the incident was within the buffer zone or in India’s terri-
Kashmir and Ladakh that are under illegal occupation of tory. Why then did our spokespersons repeat claims that
Pakistan. It had also asked them to cease such activities. the Chinese did not occupy our territory?
On November 2, 2019, New Delhi released new maps of Thus, China is using the same language it used against
India showing the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir India while justifying its 1962 incursions into India. In 1972,
and Ladakh consequent to the abrogation of Article 370 on Zhou en Lai had accused Nehru of being a surrogate of
August 5, 2019. The new map did not take into consideration Nikita Khrushchev during his talks with President Richard
the disputed Aksai Chin and showed it as part of Ladakh, Nixon in Beijing. The same charge is now levelled against
leading to a protest by China’s foreign Ministry spokesman: Narendra Modi. The 1962 attack was to insult Nehru, while
“The Indian Government officially announced the establish- the 2020 attack is to discredit Narendra Modi. O
ment of so- called Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Union (Views expressed are personal)
territories which included some of China’s territory into its
administrative jurisdiction”. They claimed that this violated T h e w r i t e r i s a f o r m e r s p ec i a l s ec r e ta ry, C a b i n e t S ec r e ta r i at.

Outlookindia.com j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 31
Cover Story/Opinion

Change
or
Perish

The immediate need for infrastructure and credible

military ecosysytem is all very well. But the PLA’s ability
to fight a transformational, algorithm war—non-kinetic
and non-contact—is the danger in the future.
Pravin Sawhney

never short of dramatic threats and flamboy-

ant rhetoric, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s statement on the brutal killing of
Indian soldiers on the night of June 15
by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the Galwan
valley of Ladakh, was subdued and passive. “India wants
peace,” he said. “But when provoked, it is capable of giv-
ing a fitting reply.” He didn’t explain what would qualify
as a provocation.
The PLA had, in a premeditated assault, lynched unarmed
Indian soldiers with iron rods, rocks and nail-studded
clubs. Unopposed, it changed facts on the ground by build-
ing permanent defences deep inside India’s perception of
the 1993 Line of Actual Control (LAC), reportedly captur-
ing 60 sq km of Indian territory. It occupied all dominating
heights in hitherto undisputed Galwan valley, overlooking
the 225 km-long and operationally critical Darbuk-Shyok-
Daulat Beg Oldi (DSDBO) road, India’s sole round-the-year
road lifeline meant to rush reinforcements to militarily vul-
nerable north Ladakh, where the possibility of a two-front
war (with Pakistan in Siachen glacier and PLA in sub-sector
north) stares in the face. It unilaterally rubbished all five
mutually agreed peace agreements of 1993, 1996, 2005,
2012 and 2013 since the 1962 war by asserting its November
7, 1959 claim line made by Premier Zhou Enlai to PM
Nehru. It demanded India stop feeder road construction
leading to DSDBO forthwith. The Western Theatre
Command (WTC), responsible for war with India, issued
belligerent statements, warning Indian troops to stop pro-
voking the PLA. It did all this because it knows what
Indians don’t: Indian military is completely unprepared for
an escalation whose ascendant ladder, the PLA, being the
militarily stronger side, would control.
Preoccupied for 30 years with the wrong war (coun-

32 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020

Cover Story/Opinion

ter-terror operations) and the wrong enemy (Pakistan), the tinues, China would win for three likely reasons: One,
generals remain oblivious about the right threats (PLA and Pakistan will drum up its proxy war and firings on the Line
interoperability or ability of PLA and Pakistan military to of Control. Two, the US would start wondering if it betted
fight together against India) and the right war (PLA’s algo- on the wrong horse for its Indo-Pacific and Quad strategies.
rithm war, which is worrying the Pentagon). Led by the And three, Modi is likely to lean more on the US-led Indo-
Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, they believe that Pacific strategy, instead of the present balancing between
fighting a two-front war is doable by improved Second the former and Russia-supported and China-backed Asia
World War mechanised warfare in the shape of Integrated Pacific Strategy. This will only bring geopolitical instability
battle groups, where tanks and guns with soldiers holding for India in the long run.
ground would rush in high altitude areas to choke the PLA Was India’s growing border infrastructure PLA’s target?
movements by attacking its vulnerabilities. They swear No. With the exception of the Galwan Valley, this is China’s
that 1962 could not be repeated. Unfortunately, while they maximalist bargaining strategy. If Gen Rawat learns basics
are focused on fighting the 58-year-old war better, the PLA of algorithm warfare, he would realise that good Indian
has moved two notches higher: from network centric war- border infrastructure will be meaningless for China’s
fare to algorithm warfare, with disruptive technologies. transformational war, which will be different from previ-
Today, the PLA has capability to fight in three virtual ous revolutions in military affairs. Good infrastructure is
battlefields—cyber, space and electromagnetic—and end needed for low-level border management threat, which is
war before a shot is fired. In a whole-of-nation war not not the case now. Today, along with infrastructure, a credi-
limited to traditional physical battlefields, it can destroy ble military ecosystem to sustain large number of troops in
most of power, defence and communica- the operational area is required to take on
tion grids, bringing India to its knees; the PLA’s humongous military coercion.
satellites would be thrown out of orbits Pre-occupied with Given this, China does not need to go war
and radars silenced. Not to talk of PLA’s
missile capabilities as part of its Rocket
counter-terrorism when its objectives are met by its coer-
cion. Indian military, let alone capability,
Force, which are unnerving the US mili- and Pakistan, does not know the war that the PLA would
tary. All this is real now. fight 15 years hence: non-kinetic,
Moreover, while India focuses on tactics India has been non-contact and without soldiers.
or immediate results China concentrates oblivious to the What does China want? Two things. It
on the war or the big picture. It analyses believes that the mutually agreed neutral-
long-term trends and does detached exami- PLA threat, or ity, which was the basis of all LAC peace
nation of operational considerations. agreements starting 1993, and coopera-
Tactics are meaningful only as long as they
to that of both tion, which underpinned the Wuhan con-
serve the big picture. For example, in the fighting together. sensus, has been torn asunder by the Modi
2017 Doklam crisis, the Indian Army won government. Beijing feels that Modi, who
the tactical battle; the PLA won the war. came back to power with an enhanced
The PLA started a confrontation where it could not win, mandate, has, starting 2020, been exhibiting hostile behav-
egged on India to bring in large reinforcements by shrill iour towards it. Instead of discussing bilateral relations be-
rhetoric in order to create a reason to bring in large num- tween India and China directly with Xi, Modi has preferred
bers of its own troops into the Tibetan Autonomous Region to discuss it with other world leaders, especially US
(TAR) without looking provocative. While additional President Trump. What’s more, Modi made a special effort
Indian troops went back victorious, the PLA, from 2018 to to bolster the weakest link in the Quad by upgrading India’s
2020, added more numbers to increase it to 2,00,000 sol- relations with Australia. The way forward to undo these
diers. It created excellent war habitat, ecosystem and wrongs, China avers, would be by upgrading bilateral talks
started realistic combat training with live firings to ensure to defence and foreign ministerial level—two plus two dia-
weapons’ calibration for accuracy in high-altitude warfare. logue. I know this because a prominent scholar in Beijing
With all this, it ended the 15 to 20 days window available to close to the establishment told me.
the Indian Army for mobilisation. The Indian Army’s habi- The other reason is India’s abrogation of Article 370 in
tat and ecosystem south of the Brahmaputra can easily be Jammu and Kashmir which has created the Ladakh Union
interdicted by PLA’s Rocket Force missiles. With large, per- Territory. Beijing says issuing new maps showing Aksai
manently ensconced trained troops in the Tibet Chin as Indian territory has disturbed the status quo and
Autonomous Region, its massive and multi-pronged intru- shows India’s expansionist tendencies. To put relations
sions across over 100 km, from north Sikkim to eastern back on track, China wants upgraded communications and
Ladakh, starting mid-April, were a walk in the park. These meaningful talks. Until then, the situation on the ground is
could be repeated easily. unlikely to change much.
The army, once again like in Doklam, rushed reinforce- Moreover, resolution mechanisms used earlier in 2013
ments without proper habitat, war materiel, ecosystem, Depsang, 2014 Chumar and 2017 Doklam will not work.
training, war-orientation, and with little long-term staying Given the quantum of threat, new bilateral mechanisms for
power. Its border guarding duties (done with self-defence perhaps political and military level talks might be needed. O
weapons) against a hostile enemy were downgraded to po- ( T h e w r i t e r i s e d i t o r , F OR C E n e w s m a g a z i n e a n d c o - a u t h o r o f
licing duties, making them sitting ducks. If the face-off con- Dragon on Our Doorstep. Views are personal.)

Outlookindia.com j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 33
Cover Story/Opinion
Hot and Sour Asia Policy
China’s strategy is to keep alliances from building amongst
its regional rivals, using the carrot and stick routine.
K.C. Singh
standoff over Chinese intrusions across the Line
THE of Actual Control (LAC) had simmered since
early May. Some analysts using private satellite
pictures revealed that Chinese ingress was seen
in areas like Galwan valley—Indian control over which was
never disputed—or even deeper on the north shore of
Pangong Tso, the world’s highest saltwater lake. Troops,
larger than normal in number, were also observed all sum-
mer patrolling the LAC in contested areas.
The Indian government kept the imbroglio quiet, to avoid
triggering jingoism in both nations. Existing methodology
and mechanisms under LAC management agreements of
1993, 1996 and 2013 were used. On June 6, the Indian corps
commander met his counterpart and the initial public com-
ments were optimistic. But things went
horribly wrong on June 15 when troops of
16 Bihar Regiment, led by their command-
ing officer (CO), proceeded to occupy an
area vacated by PLA. They were attacked by
the Chinese with improvised weapons. Col
B. Santosh Babu, the CO, and 19 colleagues
were brutally killed. The external affairs
ministry (MEA) revealed in a statement
that foreign minister S. Jaishankar on June
17 phoned his counterpart Wang Yi and
protested “in the strongest terms” over
PLA’s violent reaction to India destroying a
Chinese structure on the Indian side of the
LAC. Jaishankar warned of its “serious im-
pact” on relations between the two countries. The statement
said both sides “would implement the disengagement un-
derstanding of June 6 sincerely”.
This sounds optimistic but must be viewed cautiously
against past experience, current Chinese motives and the
geo-political context. Firstly, Chinese desire to contain
India in a South Asian construct began in 1963, immedi-
ately after 1962 Sino-Indian war. Pakistan settled their bor-
der with China, ceding Sakhshgam valley. While China
could not help Pakistan during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, as
China was embroiled in its own Cultural Revolution, they
vented ire on Bangladesh by delaying its recognition. After
the 1972 Simla Summit, China began clandestine transfer
of nuclear weapons technology and material to Pakistan,
entrenching its position in Islamabad.
Secondly, post-Mao Zedong, China adopted pragmatic
dualism. Following Rajiv Gandhi’s 1988 China visit while
relations normalised and trade boomed, mostly in China’s
favour, China continued to woo anti-India forces in South
Asia. Since then it opposes India’s permanent membership
in the UN Security Council, blocks Indian entry into the
34 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020
Nuclear Suppliers Group, counters listing of Pakistani ter-
rorism masterminds by the UNSC and so on. But whenever
economic interests beckoned, China chose conciliation. To
maintain peace and tranquility at the LAC, agreements
were signed in 1993, 1996 and 2013. After the 1989
Tiananmen massacre, under western sanctions Chinese
growth stumbled. Its GDP fell from 11.2 per cent in 1988 to
4.2 per cent in 1989 and 3.9 per cent in 1990. It recovered in
1991-94 but again began sliding, worsened by the Asian fi-
nancial crisis in 1997.
Similarly, the most promising border resolution agreement
was signed on April 11, 2005 on “Parameters and Guiding
Principles of the Settlement of the India-China Boundary
Question”. Alongside, India was finalising and eventually
clinched its civil nuclear deal with US. Thus,
China’s Asia policy rests on its desire to
keep alliances from building amongst its
reg­ional rivals, with offshore US support,
using the carrot and the stick.
There may be multiple drivers for the
current crisis, which catches India amidst
the pandemic-related health and economic
stress. Last year’s abrogation of Article 370
and division of Jammu and Kashmir defi-
nitely are factors. China had protested
both to show support for Pakistan, but also
create grounds for intervention. It also
puts India on notice to avoid closer con-
vergence with US and China’s regional ri-
vals Australia, Japan and Vietnam. India is also chairing
executive board of the World Health Organization, where a
probe into the Covid pandemic is underway. India has also
tightened the rules for Chinese foreign direct investment
in vital sectors.
Additionally, embarrassing a politically ascendant
Narendra Modi, diminishes one Xi rival. It also signals to
countries in SAARC and ASEAN that China is the dominant
power and shall brook no challenge. China has to take a call.
It can gradually restore status quo ante, obtaining from
India assurances on its concerns regarding Indian infra-
structure upgrade near LAC. It can do so partially, hoping
India will settle for a face-saver. Or it can dig in and force
India to react and then respond.
The Modi government needs to learn that jingoistic or ma-
joritarian domestic politics can have troublesome interna-
tional implications. The J&K gambit has Pakistan, China and
Nepal riled. It also shows almost no “close friend”, inc­luding
the US, will align against China. Next few days will show if the
two Asian giants can rebuild trust and be pragmatic. O
W r i t e r i s a f o r m e r d i p l o m at. ( V i e w s e x p r e s s e d a r e p e r s o n a l . )
AMISH
Author

on

THE MAGIC OF MYTHOLOGY,

PRIDE IN OUR PAST AND,
LIVING ALONE IN LONDON

In conversation with

JOIN US ON
@outlookindia @outlookmagazine
on
June 21st, Sunday, 11:00 a.m. Satish Padmanabhan
Executive Editor, Outlook
Cover Story
India/china
burn the factory
It’s possible to stop 30 per cent of our Chinese imports, but blanket
#BoycottChina doesn’t look feasible at least for now
Saibal Dasgupta, Lola Nayar, Jyotika Sood
T
HE Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) that
comprises 60 million merchants across the country
has embarked on a new campaign: Indian Goods-
Our Pride. The idea is to escalate the boycott of Chinese
products and, of course, make them in India. It finalised a
list of 500 broad categories and 3,000 products (from toys
to fabrics, kitchenware to cosmetics) that can easily be
made in India by Indians. The aim—by December 2021,
imports of Chinese products worth $13 billion are
substituted by local ones.
Think about it. The CAIT’s ambitious desire covers less
than a fifth of the imports from China—$70 billion in 2018-19.
Experts contend that if the #BoycottChina crusade has to en-
mesh with the prime minister’s appeal for economic self-reli-
ance and Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, a target to replace 30 per
cent of Chinese imports, or a little more than CAIT’s, is in
sync with reality. There is no way that the country can get rid
36 o u tlook | june 29, 2020
PTI
of imports from China, not to mention the huge cross-border
investment inflows between the two neighbours.
Bilateral economic relations cannot be viewed in a blink-
ered fashion. While imports may be the visible end, with
their ability to evoke emotional patriotic responses, the
issue has to be viewed holistically. China sells crucial ma-
chinery that adds to domestic manufacturing and exports.
These can be replaced over the next five-10 years. Both the
nations have invested heavily in each other in terms of
money. One cannot ask the Chinese firms here, and Chinese
investors in Indian stock markets, to pack up and leave. Nor
can one do the same to the Indian firms in China.
Estimates indicate that a third of the Chinese imports
constitute low-tech goods that were either made earlier by
Indians, or are still being made but in smaller quantities.
These can surely be discouraged, and re-replaced by local
products and brands. In addition, such attempts will prove
to be a fillip for the hundreds of small and medium firms,
which have languished due to the lack of demand. If the
MSME segment kicks off, the overall manufacturing sector
Cover Story
India/china
will get a boost, which will benefit the India’s Trade
Make in India scheme. with China
Indian buyers can opt for Indian-
made ovens, cookers, artificial jewelry, 2016-17
and idols of gods, even if they need to
pay a bit more. A motivation drive, and
policy measures to help the smaller $ 10,171
Indian firms, will be the steps in the
right direction. As local sales grow,
Indians will become competitive. They
$ 61,283
can emerge as exporters of these prod- 2017-18
ucts, and battle globally with China.
The Research and Information System
for Developing Countries (RIS), a New $ 13,333
$ 76,380
Delhi-based research institute, esti-
mates that there lurks an export po-
tential for 2,700 products.
Ashwani Mahajan, national co-con- 2018-19
vener, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch,
agrees, “It is a misnomer that we have
to be dependent on Chinese products.
Our policy makers have not been sen-
$ 16,752
sitive to the issue of helping to build
our manufacturing capacity. Driven by
price factors and the country’s pre-
$ 70,319
Export
ferred procurement policy, Indian
units have suffered, and now operate at
Import
below optimum capacities in the steel (Figures in Million)
and electronics. In chemical manufac-
turing, the capacity utilisation is only
30-35 per cent.” This can quickly change.
The fact remains that there is ample scope in policy-making
to stop the Red Dragon’s surge. Experts say that WTO rules
allow India more room to protect its sectors. For example,
India used non-tariff barriers, like quality standards, against
300 Chinese products, compared to the US imposition on
6,000 goods imported from China. In the recent past, as
China stalled Indians’ entry in the former’s telecom and in-
frastructure projects, India used the WTO clause of reciproc-
ity to initiate similar action against Chinese companies.
Of course, the crucial question is whether this import sub-
stitution needs to be done in one go, or in a calibrated fashion.
CAIT feels that it can be achieved by December 2021, at least
to some extent. Prabir De, professor, RIS, thinks that a
phased manner may be the best approach. “This will give
time to the Indian companies to be ready to produce most
products. If we shut down imports now, we will be the suffer-
ers,” he explains. We aren’t sure whether those who were
China is a key supplier of
equipment such as medical
devices, factory boilers, cooling
systems, anti-pollution instru-
ments, power plant machinery.
Outlookindia.com
forced to become traders because of the
onslaught of Chinese imports will return
to manufacturing at such a short notice.
Even if they do, one can be certain
that there will be a range of Chinese
machinery and intermediates that
cannot be made by Indian firms, at
least not in the next few years. One
cannot underestimate—though one
may not wish to flatter China—the role
played by the neighbour as key sup-
plier of capital goods, and sophisti-
cated equipment such as medical
devices, factory boilers, cooling sys-
tems, anti-pollution instruments, and
power plant machinery. Not only are
the Chinese products cheap—the
prices of American and European ven-
dors may be three-four times steeper—
there are question marks on India’s
ability to emerge as a major global
player in such sophisticated segments.
One has to be aware that more than
100 Chinese firms have a presence in
India. Chinese state-owned companies
have bagged huge projects here. These
include Sinosteel, Shougang
International, Baoshan Iron and Steel,
Sany Heavy Industry, Chongqing Lifan
Industry, China Dongfang International,
and Sino Hydro Corporation. In telecom, three Chinese
firms, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo have a 50 per cent share of the
mobile handset market. (But they are under pressure; Oppo
recently cancelled an online launch due to #BoycottChina.)
Indian corporate giants too have ventured into China to sell
their goods and services to India and the rest of the world.
These include prominent pharma firms such as Dr Reddy’s
Laboratories, Aurobindo Pharma, and Matrix Pharma, and
leading IT majors like NIIT, Infosys, TCS, APTECH, Wipro,
and Mahindra Satyam. Given such a broad range of
cross-border investment inflows, a delicate balance has to be
maintained with China. If each country refuses to protect the
other’s investments, it can lead to other problems.
Anil Razdan, former power secretary, explains: “We have
to take a call on the urgency of investments as we cannot
keep China out because of WTO and other global commit-
ments. This is true of projects with global funding too, un-
less we declare China a hostile nation.” Thus, a better
solution will be to “go easy on taking Chinese invest-
ments” until India builds her manufacturing capacity. A
longer-term blueprint is more desirable.
In fact, this may be the worst time to take on Chinese in-
vestments, or inflows from any other country. “The global
economy is faced with great uncertainty amid the pandemic.
With mounting pressure on economies this year, economic
development on both sides will inevitably suffer huge losses
if India and China allow border tensions to escalate,” wrote
Liu Xiaoxue, associate research fellow, Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, in a recent article. Like it or not, the same is
true about economic and business issues. O
j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 37
Cover Story
India/china

Red Rag Rising

Indian cricket’s purse-strings are tied to Chinese capital.
A disentanglement might be disastrous.

Soumitra Bose ship deals. “The interest of India is always larger than
BCCI’s commercial interest,” he adds. Vivo and Dream 11

C
did not comment on their relationship with BCCI.
RICKET, yes, even lovely cricket, our opiate of While most industry veterans say the tirade against
choice, is entwined with the Middle Kingdom. The China was more noise than reality, Chinese companies are
game could be the single biggest sufferer if the likely to change tack going forward. “Lately, there has been
‘anti-Chinese’ mood takes hold of the Indian sports a shift in thinking to a more product focus approach rather
ecosystem. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, than just branding. Chinese brands are becoming more
among the richest sports associations in the world, has value driven rather than just paying a premium and cap-
strong links--direct and indirect--with turing the opportunity at any cost,”
Chinese brands or investors. says Bhairav Shanth of ITW
The Indian Premier League, one of Consulting, a company that works on
the top five sports properties in the client engagement with multiple
world in terms of global broadcast cricket boards, including BCCI.
rights valuation, has multiple links Sponsorship and investments is com-
with Chinese brands. While mobile plex, explains Lloyd Mathias, business
company Vivo has a five-year IPL title strategist and former marketing head
sponsorship deal worth Rs 2,200 crore of HP, Asia-Pacific. “Ownership of
with the BCCI, online fantasy league companies is getting increasingly di-
platform Dream 11 and e-commerce versified and often difficult to pinpoint
company Paytm are official partners of to a specific country. The holdings and
the IPL. Chinese firm Tencent, one of cross holdings, the nationalities of the
the world’s largest video game compa- founders and the employees; the diver-
nies, has a majority stake in Dream 11, sified manufacturing locations--all
and Jack Ma’s e-commerce giant make this task very complex and open
Alibaba has a 37.15 per cent stake in to interpretation. Having the founder
Paytm. Apart from the big players, of a certain nationality or a business
Swiggy, in which Tencent has a 5.27 per Indian brands have headquartered in a country is no indi-
cent, is an associate sponsor of the cation that the company belongs
world’s richest T20 league. limited resources; there,” says Mathias.
Not just the IPL, BCCI’s riches also With Indian brands having limited
come from its Rs 1079-crore, five-year Chinese and their resources, it’s the Chinese and their
team sponsorship deal with Byju’s. The
online tutoring firm receives funding
sponsored brands have sponsored brands that have taken cen-
trestage in Indian sports, especially in
from Tencent. For becoming the title taken centrestage the last three-four years. They have
sponsors of all international matches made significant inroads in the online
played by India at home, Paytm is con- in Indian sports. gaming business, particularly eS-
tracted to pay a whopping Rs 326.8 ports—competitive, organised
crore—Rs 3.8 crore per match—to the videogaming.
BCCI. Dream 11 is also an official sponsor of the BCCI. A senior official of an online gaming company with major
“As of now, all relationships are safe and continuing. We Chinese investment says: “India is not in position to start a
have received no directive from the government to stop trade war like the US. Even imposition of any strict sanc-
anything,” says BCCI treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal. tions on Chinese investments will send wrong signals to
Interestingly, the BCCI has strong links with the BJP gov- global investors. It is better to resolve issues amicably.” He
ernment. Incumbent secretary Jay Shah is the son of the adds that even specific scrutiny of Chinese investments
Union home minister while Dhumal is the brother of can bring a fragile industrial ecosystem to a standstill,
Anurag Thakur, the minister of state for finance and cor- meaning more job cuts and loss of big opportunities.
porate affairs. “India-China trade war will harm India more than China,”
Dhumal says the BCCI will be open to review its sponsor- he warns. O (With inputs from Jyotika Sood)

38 o u tlo ok | june 29, 2020

#indianeducationconclave

In conversation with

Knowledge Partner Ramananda Sengupta,

Consultant editor,
Outlook

Reimagining LeaRning with technoLogy-

Being PRePaRed foR the futuRe

Hemant SaHal, akSHay munjal, dR aCHyuta Samanta,

Founder & CeO, president, Founder,
Collpoll Bml munjal university kiit & kiSS
dR(mRS) pankaj mittal, dR C. Raj kumaR,
Secretary general, Vice Chancellor,
association of indian universities O. p. jindal global university

Join us on
Watch it noW @outlookindia @outlookmagazine
stardom/MENTAL HEALTH

No One’s
Godson
Sushant Singh’s suicide puts the
spotlight on nepotism and the price
outsiders pay to fit in Bollywood.

Lachmi Deb Roy

R
ole-playing has never been
just about that little mysterious
alchemy that actors undergo.
It’s what all of us do all the time: we are
actors caught up in everyday perfor-
mances, enacting a script, never really
off-stage—even in our most intimate
moments. But it’s perhaps reserved for
professional actors, the more sensitive
among them, to be in a place most
excruciating of all: they are the ones
fated to pass through the mirror
multiple times, in multiple ways. The
shadow between the presented selves
and the ‘real self’ is perhaps etched

40 o u tlook | june 29, 2020

sTARDOM/MENTAL HEALTH
with the darkest ink for them. A
celebrity living under the public
spotlight also lives under an unremit-
ting self-gaze, measuring himself or
herself against the ‘ideal self’ out
there—happy, successful—and also
one’s personal markers, where there
has to be meaning in life. Lack of
acceptance, or a fledgling stardom
slowly slipping away, is only one facet.
Sushant Singh Rajput, who appeared
on our horizons as that tall, lithe,
winsome figure steaming in to bowl at
a little lad in Kai Po Che!, has now
exited quietly. The cloud he leaves in
his wake is made up in equal parts of
pathos and shock and, now, as others
enter the frame, also strafed by angry,
spiteful lightning. There’s never a
serene context in which to understand
depression, but the triggering words
and events that now engulf his former
world will hopefully become part of an
enduring legacy of questioning.
Bollywood, the world Sushant tried
to make his own, is now plagued by a
clangorous, personalised debate on
why his attempt remained only par-
tially successful—and was, finally,
thwarted. No one from any side either
denied his undoubted talent or his easy
Kai Po Che!
2014
Outlookindia.com
Sushant’s fans
feel he was never
given his due and
was treated
with disdain.
likeability on screen. Then why?
Several videos and fragments of his
writing on social media are now viral:
the actor is to be seen repeatedly ask-
ing for acceptance in the industry. The
latter is often shorthand for a settled
elite that rules Hindi cinema and sus-
tains itself via a network of second, or
third-generation family ties. It isn’t
surprising that the words ‘nepotism’
and ‘discrimination’ are so much in
the air; newcomers have always strug-
gled to find a way into this grid where
all the electricity flows. Sushant’s fans
feel he was never given his due and
was treated with the special disdain
insecure old-timers reserve for the
talented ‘outsider’.
The actor’s unsuccessful, six-month-
long battle with depression has also
once again put the spotlight on the
Shuddh Desi Romanc
2014
imp­ortance of mental health care
among celebrities—on account of the
special kind of stress they put them-
selves through. As media prowled bet­
ween his old Bihar homestead and his
rented Bandra bungalow, the public
was left ruminating on the 34-year-
old’s slender but quality filmography:
Kai Po Che!, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold
Story, Chhichhore. Also, at an ava-
lanche of invenctive. There’s even a
case for suicide abetment against a
handful of stellar industry figures.
“Sushant was removed from around
seven films and some of his films were
not released. A situation was created
that forced him to take the extreme
step,” said the advocate who filed the
case in a court in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur.
In one of the videos shared by his
fans, Sushant stresses on the word
‘nepotism’ and speaks strongly about
it, “Nepotism can coexist and nothing
will happen, but at the same time if
one intentionally doesn’t allow the
right talent to come up, there might be
a problem.” Nepotism exists every-
where, he said, but added that without
a certain openness to the system, “the
whole structure of the industry would
collapse”. Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur
e
j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 41
stardom/MENTAL HEALTH
PK
2014
took to Twitter to reveal that a dis-
traught Sushant would confide in him.
“I knew the pain you were going
through. I knew the story of the people
that let you down so bad that you
would weep on my shoulder. I wish I
was around the last six months. I wish
you had reached out to me. What hap-
pened to you was their karma. Not
yours.” But he too was not spared a
glimpse of the surging public anger.
Hiding the truth is the same as telling a
lie and it’s important to be open, hon-
est and reveal everything, a fan told
him. “If you have to hide, you should
not be talking about it. A young, beau-
tiful, talented and academically acc­
laimed life has ended…make an effort
to stop recurrence!” His tweet thus got
the pressure mounting on him to take
names. “Speak up, sir. The least you
could do for the departed soul…. If you
don’t speak today, tomorrow you will
regret another Sushant.”
Sushant’s last Instagram post, upl­
oaded on June 3 along with a collage of
his late mother (whose 2002 death had
left him shattered), revealed a mind
swamped by sadness and despair.
“Blurred past evaporating from tear-
drops / Unending dreams carving an
arc of smile / And a fleeting life negoti-
42 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!
2015
ating between the two.” One reason he
was struggling to fit in was perhaps
bec­ause, unlike many Bollywood stars,
he was genuienely bright, different and
intellectually alive. As he himself men-
tioned repeatedly, he didn’t have many
friends and all he did during his free
Sushant Singh Rajput made a cameo
appearance in Welcome to New York, a 3D
comedy, where Karan Johar plays himself
and Arjun, his doppelganger
M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story
2016
time was read books. There are several
posts on his social media handles
about the galaxy, planets, the moon,
dark matter and even of him looking
through his telescope at the dark sky.
Quite a telling irony: a star more inter-
ested in the stars in the night sky than
those crowding the next B’wood party.
But then, the package that he was an
individual and as an actor would have
sufficed to trigger pangs of insecurity
among others—and he was, tragically,
dependent on their patronage. The
withdrawal of that would be like yank-
ing an oxygen tube off a patient.
In one screenshot doing the rounds,
Sushant writes to one of his fans, “If
you do not watch my films, they will
kick me out of Bollywood. I have no
godfather; I have made all of you my
god and father. If you wish, please see
it…(and) I will be able to live in
Bollywood. Lots of love and respect.”
Unbeknownst to many, he was being
sidelined by some of Bollywood’s most
powerful people. That’s why celebrity
hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani, in one of
her posts, slammed B’wood celebs now
shedding crocodile tears on his death.
Sharing a picture of herself with Dhoni
and Sushant (who played Dhoni in the
eponymous 2016 biopic), Bhavnani
stardom/MENTAL HEALTH

Pavitra Rishta, 2009-2011, the TV serial

which put Sushant on the way stardom.

wrote: “It’s no secret Sushant was

going through very tough times for the
last few years. No one in the industry
stood up for him, nor did they lend a
helping hand. To tweet today is the
biggest display of how shallow the
ind­ustry really is. No one here is your
friend. RIP.”
Framing this whole picture of an
‘outsider’ caught in a web spun by ins­
iders were many viral videos and
B’wood tales. One video shows
Shahrukh Khan and Shahid Kapoor
trolling Sushant on-stage with some
caustic attempts at wit, with the young
actor looking distinctly humiliated and
uncomfortable and a gallery of promi-
nent faces laughing their heart out. In
his defence, this free offence-giving is
offered as a mannered emcee trick
from ‘King Khan’, who dishes out
mean jokes to everyone—Neil Nitin
Mukesh is seen upset and angry in one an outsider himself. Not so Salman the subject of nepotism was, of
video when subjected to this rude rag- Khan, who reportedly shouted at course, actress Kangana Ranaut. Her
ging-style humour from SRK, whereas Sushant once for “misbehaving” with team has posted a video where
Vidya Balan took it in her stride on his mentee Sooraj Pancholi. Later, Kangana speaks of a systematic dis-
ano­ther occasion (when she was pre- questions like “Who Sushant?” and mantling of Sushant’s chances. His
sented the ‘Na-real’ award, shaped like “Why will I make a film with him?” deserving films were never acknowl-
a coconut, apparently to rib her for her were attributed to him. edged at award ceremonies, she said,
attire). SRK, of course, was famously The one to really sink her teeth into asking questions like: why did a “ter-

Raabta Kedarnath Sonchiriya

2017 2018 2019

Outlookindia.com j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 43
stardom/MENTAL HEALTH
Chhichhore
2019
rible film” like Gully Boy win all the
awards when a “spectacular movie
like Chhichhore” was ign­ored? “How
can a person who had scored a schol-
arship to Stanford University be men-
tally weak?.... He was a rank holder.
How can his mind be weak? If you
look at his last few posts, he is clearly
saying, literally begging, ‘Watch my
films. I have no godfather. I will be
taken out of the industry’.”
Depression and insecurity is deliber-
ately instilled in you, Kangana said,
revealing that even she gets messages
from people who tell her not to take
any wrong step in life. “Why do they
want to put in my mind that I should
commit suicide? But in Sushant’s
case, he accepted it. He was called
worthless and he agreed,” she said.
The same people who wrote about
Sushant’s alleged drug use find Sanjay
Dutt’s addiction cute, she added. The
caption of her post carries the words,
“…if celebrities are struggling with
personal and mental health issues,
the media should try and empathise.”
Karan Johar, the arch second-gen
Bollywood insider, stands at the cen-
tre of this nepotism debate. Others
44 o u tlook | june 29, 2020
Drive
2019
range around him—their casual,
jokey putdowns looking ominous in
retrospect. The way, on his Koffee
With Karan show, Alia Bhatt said,
“Sushant Singh Rajput, who?”, when
asked to rank male actors and given a
menu of choices including him. Like
with the average Hindi film, that
came with a flashback. Alia’s uncle,
producer, Mukesh Bhatt, had this to
say to a television channel, “He had
come to our office for Aashiqui 2, but
things didn’t work out. Then when
we were beginning Sadak 2, Alia and
Mahesh Bhatt said Sushant was very
keen. He came over and met me, we
spent about an hour talking about
various things. I could make out he
was a very disturbed soul. There was
something about him…he was not
Sushant Singh
Rajput was a
star more
interested in the
stars in the night.
connected, not there, not on the
same plane. That bothered me. This
was about a year-and-a-half back. He
was a very disturbed boy. There was
something amiss, something wrong.”
The one voice to come out against
blanket denunciation of ‘nepotism’
was actress Swara Bhasker, herself
an ‘outsider’.
Wherever the causes lay, his biogra-
phy was beginning to close in around
Sushant. It’s not the easiest thing for a
depression-ridden celebrity to reach
out for help: the fear of being scruti-
nised further, when your fortunes are
already playing fickle, only exacerbates
your alienation. Mumbai psychothera-
pist Padma Rewari, in fact, says “pro-
duction houses should make it
mandatory to recruit mental health
teams”. But this was also a period of
strange lull. The lockdown, no shoot-
ing, and all the abnormality of the
Covid season perhaps accentuated the
gloom—Sushant was known to be a
sensitive man, who’d reached out to
help victims during the 2018 Kerala
floods. This time, in a way, he joined
that victimhood; a migrant who walked
away quietly from a heartless city. O
 #BollywoodTalkiesOutlook

Bollywood
TALKies with

Episode - 7

Actor, Writer, Director, Producer

AnurAg
KAshyAp
On his journey from
Black Friday to Sacred Games
and everything in between

in conversation with

Mitrajit Bhattacharya
Columnist & Author

Watch on
June 19, friday,
at 9:00, PM
@outlookindia
@outlookmagazine
virtual/music

MadRasana—singer Rithvik
Raja, violinist Vittal Rangan
and mridangam player
Sumesh Naraaynan

G.C. Shekhar in Chennai unique sound. Since I could not attend his
Chennai concert due to prior commitments

V
eena vidwan Kannan Balakrishnan
had always been a fan of Greek
composer-pianist Yanni. Kannan was
deeply impressed by Yanni’s simplicity when,
during his concert in Chennai in April 2014, he
walked over to the stage as Kannan played the
veena during a private concert to welcome the
hugely popular musician.
“He sat there for a while, intrigued by my fin-
gering technique, wonder-struck by the veena’s
the organisers flew me to his Colombo con-
cert,” recalls Kannan, 56. Now, the lockdown
has provided an interregnum—a cessation of
activities that the Chennai-based musician is
using, among other things, to play his veena
along with two of Yanni’s famous composi-
tions, remotely and digitally.
“With no concerts possible I decided to
become part of Yanni’s orchestra. So, for almost
a month I listened and practised along with the
videos of his two short compositions—Standing

is how Chennai’s m
logy, this usici
o ans
techn are
y se
ledb rvi

A S
b ng
on
, ena

me tud co

o io
nc
i
ss

H
er
pa

t-s

y
by

tar
ved
ven

Ra
Dri

ras
er

ikas
Ev

sa

46 o u tlook | june 29, 2020

virtual/music

in Motion and Nostalgia. Since the

veena is an instrument with frets I had
to scale up my speed to match Yanni’s
flying fingers on the keyboards and the
dizzyingly swift violins of his troupe,”
says Kannan about his preparation.
Once he was ready, Kannan’s son
Shyam recorded him; later the two
merged it with videos of Yanni’s live per-
formance to sync perfectly with the two
compositions. “When I posted it on my
FB page I was surprised by the humon-
gous response. A friend has promised to
reach it to Yanni somehow,” Kannan
beams. Kannan is not alone; more musi-
cians of this great cultural centre have
striven to enliven the sombre strains of
the lockdown blues with their own exp­
eriments. Leveraging technology and
the reach of social media they are hold-
ing remote carnatic concerts, recreating Comedian-crooner­—Alexander Babu whips up his own mix of humour and music
old film hits or simply having fun by
versifying Tamil songs in English. a YouTube channel created for the Whatsapp or mail. I would then have
However, the award for stupendous purpose—Quarantine From Reality them mixed with chords provided by
effort should go to Subhasree (QFR). For someone used to record- my keyboard player Shyam Benjamin
Thanikachalam, a producer of TV real- ing singers in studios, Subhasree was and percussion by tabla player Venkat
ity musical shows with an eye for sing- comfortable in playing around with (from their homes). The completed
ing talent. Otherwise busy compering recording techniques. Once she had recording would be sent back to the
and producing stage or reality shows, chosen a song she would pick the artistes, who would then video record
the lockdown gave her a chance to dis- singer(s) and ask them to practise by the same, so the visuals lip synced
play her passion—old Tamil film songs. sending them the pitch (sruthi) and with the singing,” Subhasree explains
She chose songs that were musically the rhythmic pattern and tempo about the elaborate process.
unique but not immensely popular, (thaalam) which they should adhere But then, Subhasree could readily tap
minor gems often overshadowed by to. “Once they recorded their songs into the huge phalanx of talented singers
other hits from the very same movies. either using garage equipment or sim- she had discovered during the last few
With this theme, she presented one ply a headset attached to a mobile, decades as a talent hunter and producer.
song every day for over 90 days under they would send it back to me by She found a matching voice for every

Veena meets
Yanni—Kannan
Balakrishnan
plays the Greek
composer-
pianist’s
compositions
remotely and
digitally

Outlookindia.com j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 47
virtual/music
Quarantine from Reality—Bhavya, Sinduri
and Shashwathi sing at Subhasree’s show
major singer—be it SPB, Yesudas, S.
Janaki, P. Suseela or even vintage greats
like A. M. Raja or Jamunarani. The
results soon sped across the world—a
swathe that included Madison and New
Jersey in the US and Rotterdam and
London in Europe to Australia and
across cities in India. “They might have
been separated geographically but
thanks to technology we were all
connected musically,” she smiles.
The QFR offerings are prefaced with
interesting nuggets about the song
being featured for the day: why a par-
ticular singer was chosen, the layering
of the lyrics and the Carnatic raga on
which it was based. “For people used to
enjoying the music, the story behind the
song provides an additional flavour,”
points out Subhasree. The knowledgea-
ble Subhasree is at her best with songs
from the ’50s and ’60s, particularly
relating to the creative processes of
those songs that were recorded but
never featured in the films.
For singers shut in their homes, this
was a godsend. Singer P. Unnikrishnan
was only too thrilled to feature along
with his singer-daughter Uthara and
keyboard playing son Krishna as they
recreated the magic of a song from the
1958 Tamil film curiously titled Petra
Maganai Vittra Annai (The Mother
Who Sold Her Son).
Singer Shashwathi, currently living
in Rotterdam, found the song she and
two other female singers sang from the
1967 Tamil hit Bhama Vijayam, appro-
priate for the present scenario as it
advocated living within one’s means.
“I was amazed at the finished product,
excellent audio quality and perfect lip
sync with Subhasree madam ensuring
rhythm support for practically every
song in the series. That all this was
done remotely makes it even more
satisfying,” she says.
On the redoubtable Carnatic circuit,
the act of “staging” remote concerts
was left to MadRasana, which has been
opening newer channels—concerts in
cinema halls, gardens and even record-
ing concerts tailored for physical work-
outs. Under the MadRasana Gridlock
Series, singer Rithvik Raja, violinist
Vittal Rangan and mridangam artiste
48 o u tlook | june 29, 2020
Sumesh Naraaynan kicked off the first
remote concert as each recorded their
bit at their homes. Their audio files
were mixed by an audio engineer. After
listening to the final version through
headphones all three recreated the
concert effect by recording the video
portion. “I then sat for hours to syn-
chronise the video and audio files so
they matched perfectly. We had to take
this route as the present technology
does not allow for more than two
artistes to play or sing together in sync
for simultaneous video-audio record-
ing,” explains Mahesh Venkateswaran,
who conceptualised MadRasana along
with music composer Sean Roldan.
For young singers like Rithvik Raja or
Vishnudev Namboothiri it was a new
experience without the advantage of
visual cues provided by a stage concert.
“The immediacy of a nod here and a
smile there that we exchange with our
fellow artistes while performing on the
stage was badly missed. So was the
appreciative applause of an involved
audience. And of course to perform in
T-shirt and sweat pants was totally
whacky,” laughs Vishnudev. The lock-
down also gave Vishnudev an opportu-
nity to explore other genres outside
Carnatic, especially film music, as he
sang for a Red FM progamme on film
During lockdown,
Chennai musicians
held remote concerts,
recreated old film
hits or just versified
Tamil songs in
English for fun.
songs and reproduced the magical
voice of ’50s star C.S. Jayaraman for
Subhasree’s QFR—all, of course,
without leaving home.
Mahesh feels it may take a while for
live concerts to return to Chennai’s
famed sabhas. “Even if they did, the
audience attendance could be thin due
to fear. So you may expect more such
remote concerts till normalcy returns.
For this gridlock series (a total of eight
concerts) we zeroed in on young art­
istes who were tech savvy and had
some kind of recording gear at home.
In fact we helped them discover digital
recorders from their cupboards, which
they had all but forgotten,” says
Mahesh. In the coming days he expects
more Carnatic artistes to get a better
hold of technology as “Perform from
Home” becomes the norm for a while.
Amidst the pervasive nostalgia for
film songs and the classical appeal of
Carnatic music, stand-up comic and
part-time singer Alexander Babu used
the lockdown to whip up his own mix
of humour and music. He lined up a
few Tamil songs, substituted their
Tamil lines with matching English
verses and sang them with hilarious
effect. His rendition of an old hit of
Sirkali Govindarajan, known for his
ringing baritone, in praise of Lord
Muruga notched the highest number
of hits. “There were a few raised eye-
brows but the reception otherwise was
encouraging. The younger generation
was grateful that it could discover a
singer of the calibre of Govindarajan
thanks to this attempt,” says Alex.
As the lockdown slowly unspools
towards a resumption of (partial)
normality, Chennai’s musicians send
out a single message—the concert halls
might have fallen silent, but there is no
stopping the music. O
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LEANDER Paes/interview

getty images
To measure the contribution
of the inimitable, and
irreplaceable, Leander Paes
to Indian tennis, one just has
to look at the success percent-
age of his 30-year Davis Cup
career: an astounding 72.65
per cent (singles/doubles, on
all surfaces). Also, the 1996
Olympic bronze medallist
holds the Davis Cup world
record of most wins: 45 (77.58
per cent) in 58 ties played.
Still, the ageless Paes, who
turned 47 on June 17, is not
averse to continuing, post-
Covid shutdown. While clean-
ing his Mumbai apartment
during the lockdown, he
spoke to Qaiser Mohammad
Ali in a free-wheeling
interview. Excerpts:

In 1989, Sachin Tendulkar

made his Test debut and
you played your first junior
Grand Slam [Australian
Open]. Sachin retired in
2013; not you. What keeps
you going on?
I’ve tremendous respect for
Sachin’s amazing feats. My
main focus has been physical
fitness. And because of the
sport I play, it is so impor-
‘My body is
in great shape,
tant, physical attributes of a
tennis player is so demand-
ing that I had to focus on

tennis muscle
that. Having the genes I
inherited is one thing; I had
to work very hard to keep my
fitness level high.
How is your body respond-
ing to tennis at 47?
My body is in great shape.
memory
runs deep’
I’ve worked tremendously
hard since I was six, seven,
or eight years old. I don’t

50 o u tlook | june 29, 2020

LEANDER Paes/interview
think people realise how
much hard work goes into
winning one Grand Slam—let
alone winning 18—and
playing in one Olympics.
Playing seven Olympics is a
different ballgame.
You were to retire at the end
of this season that you titled
#OneLastRoar. But Covid
paused it; 2020 Olympics
were postponed while India
is to play Finland in the
Davis Cup in September.
Will you reconsider your
retirement?
Oh, you can’t tell, because
no one knows when the sit-
uation will become normal
and regular tennis resume.
There’s even a talk of the
Olympics going to 2022.
Once life comes back to nor-
mal, my team will evaluate
whether I should continue.
I’ve played for so many
years, the tennis muscle
memory is so deep. I think
physically I’m very fit,
strong; but to stay emotion-
ally and mentally fit and
happy is really the
important part.
What goals did you set
when you won the junior
US Open in 1990,
Wimbledon in 1991 aged 17
and became world No.1?
At that stage, I was trying
to believe I could be a
Grand Slam champion.
Until then I hadn’t proven
it. In early 1990, I got to
the junior Australian Open
final, after qualifying. I
lost, but it gave me a lot of
belief—that I can possibly
win a couple of Grand
Slams. It gave me the hun-
ger to work harder.
You won 18 Grand Slams,
but overall, you’ve had a
somewhat chequered career,
considering on/off-court
events; at times you were
treated unfairly when it
came to selection etc.
Outlookindia.com
I think I’ve had a very
blessed, long career, with
many ups and downs. I’ve
been unbelievably blessed
to have around 72 per cent
win-loss record in Davis
Cup [till India’s latest tie,
against Croatia in March
2020]. For any athlete to
have a better than 50 per
cent record is normally
unheard of. In every per-
son’s life there are ups and
downs. What life throws at
you is not necessarily in
your control. But how you
react to it and what you
make of it is in your control.
I always put my country
before myself.
“To win 18 Grand
Slams, your lifestyle
has to follow a
formula—discipline,
hard work,
simplicity. Not many
can do this.”
Do you think you’ve suf-
fered because at times
you’ve spoken your mind?
But I always spoke with my
racquet and that was
important.
You won only one ATP sin-
gles title, in 1998 in Newport.
If you look at the ATP, there’s
one singles title; if you look at
the Challengers, I won over
50 titles. In Davis Cup singles,
there are umpteen wins. In
1998, I got my highest singles
ranking, 73rd, and I got into
the main singles draw in all
Grand Slams as well as ATP. I
had to decide whether to
focus on singles—which is
what I wanted to do—or
whether to prove to India
that there could be a Grand
Slam champion from India.
At that point, tennis was
changing, playing surfaces
were becoming slower, balls
were becoming bigger, and
much slower. Hence, for me,
being a serve-and-volley
player, a fast court player, the
physical and mental effort,
and the hard work I had to do
for singles, would mean that I
would’ve had to focus only on
singles. The previous year, in
1998, I had won the Newport
in July, beat Pete Sampras in
August, and won umpteen
Challengers. Apart from
being world No.73 in January
1999, I also got into all four
Grand Slam doubles finals,
and we [with Mahesh
Bhupathi] were world No.1.
In 1999, when I was in the top
75 in singles, I had to make a
decision. And had I known
then that my career would
last up to 2020, I would have
definitely focused in singles
for five more years.
How did you convince top
players [Martina Navratilova,
Martin Damm, Lisa
Raymond, Martina Hingis,
etc.] to partner you even as
you were growing old?
It’s because I keep winning;
other people want to win
with me. The formula of
winning is a very potent
ingredient and real cham-
pions have that. Winning
one or two Grand Slam is
one thing, but to repeatedly
win Grand Slams—18—
takes a lot of effort. There’s
a certain formula that
you’ve to follow in your
lifestyle, a lot of discipline,
a lot of hard work, and
simplicity. Not many peo-
ple can live this formula
because it can be very
boring, hence they don’t
get the results.
How’s it that you are
delivering motivational
speeches these days?
Throughout my life,
whether I was with my sis-
ters or my friends, I was
always the leader or captain
of the pack. When I’ve not
been a leader, I’ve to follow
and blend with the role.
Through my 30-year career,
I found that achieving great-
ness is all about getting
hum­ans to be the best ver-
sions of themselves.
Everybody is an expert in
his/her field. I think it’s
imp­ortant to motivate peo-
ple, to show them some exa­
mple, not to tell them “do as
I say”. Also, from age 12, I’ve
had to handle my passport,
travel details, hotel book-
ings, reservations, money
etc. I didn’t have my mum
and dad around when I left
home at 12. Since then I’ve
been looking after my ‘busi-
ness’ globally for a living. So,
teaching the skill to a corpo-
rate man/woman how to
handle their day-to-day life
to be able to bring expertise
in their business comes very
natural to me.
Would you want to switch to
administration, like of ATP,
after retirement?
If the right offer, the right
opportunity, comes only
then would I do it. I’m
open-minded to life.
When is your autobiography
coming?
We’ve been working on it for
a long time. We’ll see how it
goes down the track.
Were you serious when you
once said that you wanted
to win an Oscar?
Of course, yes. It was a
dream. But you realise some,
and some you don’t. The
beginning of any achieve-
ment is a dream.
There’s talk of equality in
prize money in men’s and
women’s competitions.
I’m definitely, 100 per cent
for equality, which is not
evaluated by gender or by
different strengths and
weaknesses; it is evaluated
in a corporate world by what
revenue one is bringing. O
j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 51
Interview / Art and Culture

‘Hong Kong’s youth are desperate.

They no longer care about their lives.’
June 12 marks the first anniversary of major
clashes between pro-democracy protestors
and the police in Hong Kong after its govern-
ment introduced a controversial extradition
bill. It was later withdrawn in face of mounting
opposition, but protests continue unabated.
Evans Chan has traced the evolution of the
city’s resistance from the 2014 Umbrella Move-
ment to the leaderless protests of 2019 in his
engaging documentary We Have Boots. He
talks to Syed Saad Ahmed about the film and
the struggle against Chinese authoritarianism.

In the beginning of the movie, there is a

reference to Martin Luther King’s strategy
of non-violent resistance. In the latter part,
however, there is an emphasis on militants
who do not shy away from more aggressive
methods. Do you feel non-violent resistance
can only work up to a point?
> When there were two million peaceful demon-
strators on the streets (on June 16), the government
did not withdraw the bill. It was only when militant
kids fought aggressively for three months that they
dropped it. Even the non-violent protestors admit
that if those protestors had not been violent, the bill
would have been passed. They stopped it, so how
can you tell them to not be violent? They feel they
have exhausted all other options.
There was an incident where violent protestors
set a man on fire. That was terrible. So you can’t
also say you accept these methods. In the film,
pro-democracy leader Jimmy Sham said he could
not condone the attack, but he also refused to con-
demn the protestors. Many people feel they simply
cannot tell the militant protestors what to do.
Student leader Alex Chow says, “If you live in
Hong Kong, you will have mental illness.” Do you
feel the same way?
> It is very intense. For many people, it’s depress-
ing and causes a lot of inconvenience—the subway
may be suspended or some traffic junction may be
blocked…what can you do? There is widespread
depression and desperation. When I talk to young
people, the anger is such that I almost feel I am
talking to some jihadist. Of course, they are not
that; I cannot call them terrorists. But I have the
feeling that if they are pushed more, you just don’t
know what they are capable of doing. They no
longer care about their lives. That’s what jihadists
are—they don’t care about their lives, that’s why
they engage in terrorist activities.
We Have Boots was earlier released as a shorter
film. Is it still a work in progress?
> For a retrospective of my work where I was going
to show Raise The Umbrellas, my 2016 film on the
Umbrella Movement, I wanted to make a shorter
piece as a companion to that documentary. I did
some interviews and realised that all the protes-
tors who appeared in Raise The Umbrellas were
Evans Chan concerned about imprisonment. Over the course
of making the film, Ray Wong fled to Germany. He
became the first political asylum seeker from Hong
Kong. Alex Chow left for the US to study. I wanted to
document all these developments. But the film is
complete now—if I keep expanding it, it will be mean-
ingless. Of course, Hong Kong’s problem will continue
and there may be another film from another angle to
follow what happens. I am working on a third film on
the movement—it is called Umbrella Road. It is much
more chronological, so it is easier for me.
Have you faced censorship?
> Since We Have Boots premiered recently at the
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020, there has
not been any reaction as such. But in 2016, the Asia
Society Hong Kong Centre cancelled a screening of
“The militant Raise The Umbrellas. It was also banned in universi-
protestors ties. My detractors said the film was not “balanced”,
but it also had an interview of a pro-Beijing legislator.
stopped the I won’t be fired from some job, but as far as I can
extradition say, I have lost some commissions. Others, however,
bill. How can have lost or are in danger of losing their jobs. I
featured two pop stars in Raise The Umbrellas,
you tell them Anthony Wong and Denise Ho. China has blacklisted
to not be both of them. The careers of the actors who
violent?” participated in the protests have been frozen. O

52 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020

 Masterspeak
A Webinar Series-Episode 4

ManaGinG
Cash in UnCeRtain
tiMes with
Ravi Gilani
Founder and Managing
Consultant, Goldratt India
Watch the complete discussion
between Ravi Gilani, Founder and
Managing Consultant, Goldratt India and
V Keshavdev, Executive Editor, Outlook
Business on how businesses can manage
cash in these uncertain times.

To watch, visit:
Outlookindia.com/videos

Follow us on:
@outlookBusiness
@outlookbusinessIndia

Presented by Co-Sponsored by
Book Review
Grime In The
Factory
In this intricately plotted novel, Benyamin trods
familiar territory—the Malayali Gulf experience.
Freedom and rights issues get prominence
through flawed characters and a few weak joints.
Sankar Radhakrishnan
F
or over half a century,
the ‘Gulf’ has been El
Dorado for South Asians,
particularly Malayalis. As the
narrator in Al Arabian Novel
Factory reflects, “God blesses
some small Arab country with
petrol dollars. And then a tiny
sliver of land...gets to enjoy...
those blessings…. There was a
long and lonely road between
the two lands, and it could tell
many stories of sacrifice.”
It is these stories of toil,
humiliation, deprivation,
loneliness, despair and aliena-
tion of the ‘Gulf Malayali’, and
the wider immigrant commu-
nity, that Benny Daniel—who
writes as Benyamin—chronicles
in his writing.
There have been books and
films on the Gulf immigrant
experience in Malayalam. But
few capture granular details of
immigrant life with authentic-
ity. It’s these details that
Benyamin writes about with
authority, perhaps because he
was himself a Gulf Malayali for
over two decades.
Benyamin explores a world
familiar to Kerala, but also
alien, especially its darker side.
Starting with his award-win-
ning 2008 novel Aadujeevitham
(Goat Days), he’s returned to
his known turf—immigrant life
in the Gulf and the complicated
relationships that entwine
locals and ‘guest’ workers who
keep Arab nations ticking.
At first glance, Al Arabian
54 o u tlook | june 29, 2020
Novel Factory seems to have a simple narrative. Pratap, an
Indian-Canadian journalist, travels to a West Asian country
known only as the ‘City’, ruled by an authoritarian regime. He’s
ostensibly there to helm a research project. But his real objec-
tive is to reconnect with Jasmine, his onetime lover, who lives
in the City and is an elusive but constant presence through the
book. In the City, his life tangles with the lives of his team mem-
bers and also with the tortuous journey of A Spring Without
Fragrance, a mysterious manuscript written by Sameera Parvin,
a radio jockey who once lived there.
Though a standalone novel, Al Arabian Novel Factory is also
a companion volume to Benyamin’s Jasmine Days (Mullappoo
Niramulla Pakalukal). Positioned as Jasmine Days’ sequel, it
could just as easily be a ‘prequel-sequel’ hybrid. So intensely
interwoven are the narrative strands and devices that connect
the books that it does get a little convoluted at times.
Both novels though, are set against the backdrop of the Arab
Spring, this one focusing on the period immediately after. The
The immigrants here are mostly comfortably off. The sort who sing
immigrants praises for the City’s despotic ruler while hosting a workshop on
‘socialism-driven freedom in Kerala’; the immigrant who is a
here are ‘socialist’ at heart, but lives a capitalist life.
mostly Translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib, the book also
comfortably tackles other themes including freedom of speech, thought and
action, minority rights and women’s rights. And looming over
off, the sort everything is the all-seeing City, a character in itself. Habib’s trans-
who sing lation is competent and occasionally exquisite, capturing the
praises for cadences of the original; I confess that I could occasionally visual-
ise the original Malayalam line as I read the English version.
the City’s Sometimes, in factories, things can go out of
despotic kilter; so do things in this novel factory—not
ruler, who Benyamin seriously awry, though. The narrative tends to
Al Arabian meander occasionally. Also puzzling are some
are ‘social- sections, particularly those in which Pratap
Novel Factory
ists’ at heart, | Translated by behaves somewhat naively despite his journal-
but live Shahnaz Habib | istic experience. You could attribute it to the
capitalist pangs of love, but one method he explores to
Juggernaut | 376 trace Jasmine is far-fetched, stupid even, if not
lives. pages | Rs 599 downright dangerous. Perhaps it was intended
as a narrative device, but it seemed rather off.
What is disconcerting is the depiction of
some female characters. They’re portrayed as
unaware of and uninterested in little beyond
their immediate surroundings and passions.
Knowing the many informed, opinionated
and worldly-wise women around us, even
among the demographics presented in the
novel, this characterisation seems baffling.
This, even as several male characters, at
times, appear misogynistic.
Perhaps, it is all a pointer towards one of
the book’s takeaways—that we are all flawed
beings. Or that glittering facades often hide
messy secrets and disguise dreary, grasping
lives where self-interest reigns supreme. As
Pratap says: “I have always been curious
about the City, how it rose out of dust like an
enchanted land in a fairy tale.” More than
anything else, Al Arabian Novel Factory
reminds us that there are no fairy tales. O
 Episode - 6

Role of Opposition
During a Pandemic

Shahnawaz Hussain Bhavna Vij-Aurora

Former Union Minister and Political Editor, Outlook
National Spokesperson, BJP

Manish Tewari Neerja Chowdhury

Lok Sabha MP, Congress Political Commentator

Watch the full Interaction on

@outlookindia @outlookmagazine
 la
dolce
vita
Apt
Preoccupation
The truly stylish don’t try hard—an
old maxim that’s embodied by the
persona of Radhika Apte, who has
a natural ability to transcend even
fashion mag frippery. Cooling her
heels in London, she has here a tum-
bled-down bicycle, a bottle of water
(we think), a pair of cool shorts and
top, shades and a contented smile.
And she’s got the expanse of Regent
Park spread around her, with its
wat­er bodies, swans and fine stands
of Ash, Plane and Walnut. Yet Radh­
ika is not one to wallow in delicious
repose—she’s cut down on her
beloved reading and is concentrat-
ing on the next best thing—writing.
56 o u tlook | june 29, 2020
Pater, Fill
Him Up
So this is how they start out—
loose, baggy, adorably skinny, yet
with clear makings and markings
of a barrel chest—before they
wrestle with physical ambition
and fight for their fathers’ golden
boots. Cristiano Ronaldo has
again extolled the virtues
of hard exercise and
careful eating—giving us
happy couch sybarites
a severe guilt complex—
while confessing to an
occasional Roman pizza
with his son Cristiano Jr.
Leave him to the thinly
crusted staple, Cristiano, and
Junior will fill out those inches
in deficit before you retire. Some
courses should be left to nature.
 la
dolce
vita

Unchanging Centrespreads
So accustomed are we to the tropes of foreign fashion magazines’ cover
photography that there was nothing unusual about this on the face of
it: Scarlet Johansson flanked by Korean actress Donna Bae and Deepika
Padukone. But Diet Prada, a ‘fashion watchdog’, cast a gimlet eye and
called out the sweetly nefarious, subterranean design. Pretending to
celebrate diversity, including people of colour, what entrenched
bastions of White privilege do is to use the latter as ‘props’ to
‘glamourise’ White privilege, it says. Scarlett, in short, will remain at the
centre. If you always noted the ‘side role’ of Asians and Blacks in a
fashion photo, then shrugged it off, you were at least on the right track.

Out With The Shadow!

Glamour, when painted on to an unwilling surface, doth
detract from beauty. Benafsha Soonawalla (Whozzat?
A Big Boss contestant)—wearing eye shadow straight
from a horror flick and a gimcrack top laden with the
cheapest trifle out of a Bollywood B-movie circa 1983—
is actually a pretty lass with a fresh complexion. These
days, she moans about a ‘hot photo’ of hers being taken
down by Instagram. If you peek at it, you will turn away
from the poor girl forever. Before plunging into disasters,
she needs to ask us.

j u ne 2 9, 2 0 2 0 | ou t look 57
 The Netherlands
Flashback
“China? Have you come from China?”
asked the stewardess as she flipped
through my passport. I was transit-
ing via Dubai in the first week of
February—a time when we traipsed
through airports without tempera-
ture checks or protective gear, barely a
mask in sight. Confined to my house for
three months now, I look back at a trip
that might be my last for a long, long time.
Blowin’ In The Wind
“Who visits the Netherlands in the win-
ter? There has been no sunshine in the
past two months,” my friend exclaims.
Indeed. Throughout January, the tem-
perature remains entrenched in single
digits and the weather app indicates a
hard rain’s gonna fall every day. But as my
flight descends to Schiphol Airport, I see
clouds casting shadows on a sea of lucent
yellow—the sun has finally glossed over
the grey pall. Over the next few days, it
retreats, but the rain is usually a drizzle
and it seldom gets uncomfortable. The
layers of fleece, wool, down and water-
proofing I packed in anticipation of
bone-wracking weather are redundant.
But soon, the heavens subjected me to
something I was not prepared for—winds
so ferocious they flung away my jacket,
made my eyes water till I could not see
and left me barely able to walk. But I was
lucky. In January 2018, 90mph gales not
only made walking a punishing task, but
also toppled trucks and trees and tossed
around shipping containers. I should
have guessed though—after all, the coun-
try is synonymous with windmills.
Do It Like The Dutch
I took the bus departing at 10.06 am so
that I could reach Rotterdam Centraal at
10.14 am, in time for the 10.26 am train to
the airport, where I arrived at 10.51 am.
And I had planned it all the night before.
One of the pleasures of travelling in the
Netherlands is the excellent public trans-
port. The network is extensive and punc-
tual, and signboards, apps and real-time
58 o u tlook | jun e 29, 2020
Syed Saad Ahmed
is Assistant Editor,
Outlook
updates help you precisely schedule your
trip. There are rare occasions, though,
when a delay strikes. In Culemborg, a small
town near Utrecht, signs of “defective
platform” greeted me at the station. Trains
sped by as I tried to make sense of the
Dutch announcements. I joined a group of
commuters in conversation, only to find that
everybody at the station was getting free cof-
fee! While I was rather impressed with the caf-
feinated apology, I still needed to get to Utrecht
immediately. But I needn’t have worried. Soon, a bus
arrived and took us for free to the nearest station. In case
of delays, you also get a refund on your ticket. While India could learn plenty
in this regard from the Netherlands, there are lessons we too can offer—public
toilets are as hard to come by here as late trains and not a day goes by when
my bladder isn’t wistful for a Sulabh Shauchalaya.
Capital Confusion
Although Amsterdam is officially the capital of the Netherlands, the seat of
the government is the Hague, the third-most populated city in the country.
To make matters more complicated, Amsterdam is not the capital of North
Holland, the province in which it is located. That distinction goes to Haarlem,
a suburb of Amsterdam. However, it is the name of the country that confuses
English speakers more—many refer to the Netherlands as Holland, which
might offend residents of Flevoland, Gelderland and Zeeland. For North
Holland and South Holland are just two of the 12 provinces constituting the
Netherlands. The name has become synonymous with the entire country
because the region has dominated trade and economy. But that is not the sole
reason. For it was only in 2019 that the Dutch government finally decided to
ditch Holland as a moniker for the Netherlands—part of a strategy to rebrand
its image and promote tourism to lesser-known destinations. So now, the real
name of the country will be used in the Eurovision song contest, at the
Olympics as well as for the national football team. It all sounds promising—
other provinces might finally get their due—until you find out the website of
the Dutch tourist board: holland.com.
In Amorous Array
Outside the Escher Museum in the Hague, a great crowd has assembled.
There is a makeshift, albeit elaborate, stage with colourful banners, in front
of which people are animatedly chatting and occasionally yelling in response
to the speaker’s exhortations. There are babies strapped around their par-
ents’ chests as well as the elderly with walking sticks. I am not sure what’s
happening—the gathering has the groovy vibe of a concert, but the speeches
are not ceding ground to music. What’s going on, I ask a bystander. School
teachers are protesting, he replies. Having been detained at a protest in my
hometown and seen video after video of brutalities against demonstrators,
this comes as a culture shock—it’s incredible how relaxed everyone is. There
are no menacing men in uniform swinging batons, no ‘counter-protestors’
trailing the fringes and no spectre of violence haunting the gathering—just
the demos of a democracy putting forth their voice in a public square. O
I l l u s t r a t io n : s aa h i l