2019

Countless people are arguing incessantly about whether Narendra Modi will come back to power – many have assumed that it is a foregone conclusion.

It may be time to take a realistic look, which means that it does not matter which political party or parties form the next government. Only the naive refuse to believe that India is what it was between 1947 and 2014 – largely tolerant, secular and wedded to democratic norms.

At a time when all attention is on the elections, this topic could be discussed later, but by then, it may be too late. Fresh bamboo poles are being put up on pavements every day in some locality or the other, to test the ground for new stalls to come up — precisely because most policemen are busy with elections, meetings and processions. Sensible people in Kolkata have long given up all dreams of seeing a ‘London’ and tiny Chinese lights glittering at night simply cannot hide the ever expanding shanties and squalor that symbolise the city. Street vendors, as hawkers are called in legal language, have been encroaching every possible public space at such an alarming rate that there is either a master plan to slum-ify the city or there is a dangerous conspiracy of silence. What is important for us to realise is that once the new law is in position in the near future, it will be impossible to remove street vendors ever again.

হয়তো সত্যিই এই আইন পুলিশি জুলুম থেকে হকারদের বাঁচাতে পারবে। কিন্তু স্থানীয় তোলাবাজদের হাত থেকে তাঁদের রক্ষা করবে কে? এই আইনের ৪ নম্বর ধারা অনুয়ায়ী লাইসেন্স বিলি করা, এবং ৫ নম্বর ধারা অনুযায়ী লাইসেন্স নবীকরণ ও উত্তরাধিকার নিশ্চিতকরণ— এই সবের আগে এখনও ভেবে দেখার সময় আছে। ঠান্ডা মাথায় ভাল করে ভেবে নিয়ে, ফুটপাত আর সংলগ্ন রাস্তার প্রতিটি ইঞ্চি চিরতরে বেহাত হয়ে যাওয়ার আগে, অঞ্চল ধরে ধরে ঠিক করা দরকার যে, ‘হকার অঞ্চল’ ঠিক কোথায় কোথায় তৈরি হওয়া উচিত। আমরা জানি যে, বাস্তবিক হকারদের ছাড়া আমাদের রোজকার জীবন অচল।

নির্বাচনী প্রক্রিয়ার একজন উৎসাহী এবং তীক্ষ্ণ পর্যবেক্ষক হওয়াতে আমি নিশ্চিত ভাবে বলতে পারি যে, এই নির্বাচন অন্যান্য বারের চেয়ে সত্যিই বেশ আলাদা রকম। এটা বলছি, কারণ বর্তমানে আমার মূল দুশ্চিন্তার বিষয় হল, আমরা কি ভোটদাতাদের সুরক্ষার জন্য অতিরিক্ত সাবধানতা অবলম্বন করব না যাতে তাঁরা পরবর্তী কালে, যে কোন শক্তিশালী রাজনৈতিক দলের হাতে— সে কেন্দ্রেই হোক বা রাজ্যে— চিহ্নিত এবং নিগৃহীত না হন?

As a keen observer of the electoral process, I can safely say that this election is really quite different from others —except perhaps 1977 — as India has to take a very grave choice, on which the future of the nation depends in many senses. Having said that, my main worry now is that since vindictiveness is a part of state policy, should we not take extra care to protect the voter from being identified and harassed later on, by any powerful party at the centre or in the states?

It may be interesting to recall the story of a teacher whose students were puzzled to find him crawling on his knees under the dim light of a lamppost, looking for something. When his students asked him what he was looking for, he said he had lost the keys to his house somewhere. So the students also went down on their knees and palms and started looking for the keys, but after a futile search, they brushed the dust off their hands and clothes and asked the teacher if he had any idea where he may have dropped the bunch.

Never before in the history of television in India have we come across a television channel that operates as a full-fledged one but claims that it is not a TV channel. It appears on well-known direct-to-home TV platforms like Tata Sky, Airtel and DishTV, but resorts to as much subterfuge as possible to obfuscate its real character — as it has not come in through the normal licensing route.

নির্বাচন কমিশনের বিরুদ্ধে কংগ্রেস, সিপিএম বা তৃণমূল পক্ষপাতিত্বের অভিযোগ তোলার বহু আগেই আইএএস, আইএফএস, আইপিএস ও নানা কেন্দ্রীয় সার্ভিস-এর প্রায় দেড়শো জন অবসরপ্রাপ্ত অফিসার কমিশনকে ‘হলুদ কার্ড’ দেখিয়েছিলেন। নেতৃত্বে ছিলেন এক জনজাতির তিন অফিসার। এই দুই অভিযোগে পার্থক্য আছে। পশ্চিমবঙ্গে তৃণমূল জমানায় পরিচালিত সাম্প্রতিক পঞ্চায়েত নির্বাচন যে অবাধ হয়নি, সে স্মৃতি টাটকা। সিদ্ধার্থশঙ্কর রায় ও পরে বামফ্রন্ট আমলের ‘রিগিং’ও কুখ্যাত। কিন্তু ‘কনস্টিটিউশনাল কনডাক্ট’ বা সাংবিধানিক আচরণবিধি নাম দিয়ে নিজেদের অভিজ্ঞতা তুলে ধরতে গিয়ে এর কোনওটির কথাই বলেননি অবসরপ্রাপ্ত অফিসাররা। এই দলে আছেন একাধিক প্রাক্তন কেন্দ্রীয় নির্বাচন কমিশনার, অনেক রাজ্যের প্রাক্তন প্রধান নির্বাচনী আধিকারিক এবং বহু প্রাক্তন রিটার্নিং অফিসার।

Long before Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or the Trinamool Congress started raising their voices against the Election Commission’s alleged bias, a group of some 150 retired officials of the IAS, IFS, IPS and Central Services had already started waving the ‘yellow card’ at the Commission that is led by three officers of the same tribe.

Narendra Modi’s record in office being quite pathetic and people having neither forgotten nor forgiven him for the economic mess that he created with his ‘demonetisation’ that caused havoc in the economy and destroyed livelihoods, it is hardly surprising that he has fallen back on faux nationalism as the cornerstone of his poll campaign.

Those who are wondering what happened on February 26 at Balakot and how an Indian air force pilot fell captive soon after may recall the game of kabaddi. It is the only indigenous game of India and Pakistan that remained alive in spite of the takeover by colonial sports like cricket, football, hockey, tennis or badminton. Not only did it survive, but it also staged a remarkable comeback. Both Indians and Pakistanis enjoy that surge of adrenaline every time ‘their raider’ sneaks into enemy territory and ‘tags’ or knocks out one or more targets — even as the entire opposing team tries its best to grab the raider and pin him down.

Right from the Upanishadic period, India has an age - old culture of questioning existing beliefs, texts, systems and public authorities both the religious and the secular or political . We have briefly mentioned Gautam Buddha in this regard. But the hard fact is that this practice had fallen into utter disuse by the late medieval and early modern periods. This is when Rammohun arrived.

On the occasion of Maha Shivratri millions of Shiva devotees keep a fast all day and pray through the night. The festival, which falls on March 4 this year, is one of the holiest days in the Hindu calendar and the most important among the 12 Shivratris celebrated throughout the year. Some say this was the day when Shiva manifested himself in the form of a linga, and the Puranas mention that Shiva wed Parvati on this day. But why do Hindus celebrate this birthday or even the marriage, which was as tempestuous and interesting as most human marriages?

On December 30, last year, we were treated to the most unusual spectacle of the Prime Minister of India sitting on the floor or a cell of a jail, his legs crossed over each other, and his palms joined in prayer.

He was, however, not praying to God — he was actually worshipping his guru, Veer Damodar Savarkar, who had once been imprisoned in this cell and his eyes were transfixed on his portrait that was propped up a few feet away.

Public administration, as distinct from political governance, has its own problems. For political programmes have a way of boomeranging on the government of the day. Sometimes, they can be anticipated, on other occasions, they are intended to provoke and occasionally, they just create a mess: a recent example is the ugly fallout of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's complete ban on cow slaughter in Uttar Pradesh that might have been avoided with some planning, patience and a sense of perspective.

This is not the first occasion when I have expressed India’s indebtedness to Buddhist records for reconstructing Indian history in the last two centuries. Those who are familiar with this issue would be aware of the basic problem of deciphering history as an empirical discipline from materials that were never meant to serve as historical records or documents.

প্রধানমন্ত্রীর দৃষ্টি নিবদ্ধ ছিল কয়েক ফুট দূরত্বে রাখা সাভারকরের ছবির ওপর। ‘হিন্দুত্ব’-এর ধারণাটির স্রষ্টা সাভারকর এই মতবাদের জনক হিসাবে স্বীকৃত। তিনি প্রজন্মের পর প্রজন্মকে এক হিন্দু ভারতের স্বপ্ন দেখতে এবং তার জন্য দাবি জানাতে উদ্বুদ্ধ করেছিলেন। যে কারাগার পরিদর্শনে মোদী গিয়েছিলেন, সেটি হল আন্দামানের সেলুলার জেল। ভয়ঙ্কর ‘কালা পানি’র কথা ভারত কখনও ভুলতে পারবে না।

The topic which I have chosen to speak today seeks to bridge, to some extent, the ever-increasing gulf between the social sciences and the physical sciences. As academic disciplines improve their coverage and become more organised, more systematic and reach higher levels of understanding of reality in their own different ways, they become more and more exclusive. They begin to speak in languages that arise out of the requirement of their own disciplines without realising that their lexicon is hardly understood by anyone else who is not a part of their limited domain.

The moment I read in the papers that the South India Club on Hindustan Park was closing down its famous canteen, I rushed for a last breakfast. But alas, when I reached I found it had already shut down. To make up, I went to the old trustworthy Ramakrishna Lunch Home on Lake Road, so close to where I was born and brought up. I gorged on steaming idlis, crisp vadas dipped in sambhar and a wonderful masala dosa. To me, it was not food — but nostalgia. I grew up on Lake Road that was known as Little Madras.

The recent election results in the three Hindi belt states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have proved that Narendra Modi is certainly not as invincible as he was being made out to be. But they have also proved that voters are split right down the middle, as the difference in the total votes secured by the two major parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, is literally hair-thin.