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14 August 2010 - 20 August 2010
small world
Getaway
Bandh Tourism Makes its Marx in Kolkata
Jaideep Mazumdar

Three general strikes, two transport strikes and two ‘chakka jams’ or road blockades in the last two months in Kolkata have led to a dose of capitalist ingenuity. Hoteliers and tour operators in tourist spots within a few hours’ driving distance from the city are now offering discounts and special packages during agitation days. 

The calls for shutdowns usually fall on days following or preceding a weekend. Rather than staying home, many Kolkatans have traditionally headed for destinations like Santiniketan, Mandarmoni, Digha and Shankarpur. “We’re now trying to get more people to come here during the shutdowns by offering good discounts and bandh packages,” says Bipradas Chakraborty of the Digha-Shankarpur Hoteliers’ Association. 

The Association has coined the term ‘bandh tourism’, and it’s finding takers. This week, for instance, a proposed three-day transport strike from Tuesday—postponed  at the last moment— came as a blessing for tour operators. “Many of our members offered packages for this strike, not only for the three days, but the entire six days from last Saturday to Thursday. All one had to do to was take leave on Monday to enjoy an uninterrupted six-day break. There’s been a huge response to these six-day packages to destinations within a 200 km radius of Kolkata,” says Prabir Chakraborty of Bengal Travel Operators’ Federation. 

But why the 200 km radius? “Because, if a bandh or strike is suddenly withdrawn, a tourist can reach Kolkata within a few hours and get back to work,” smiles Chakraborty. As many probably grudgingly did this week. With Bengal’s political organisations showing no sign of giving up their disruptive ways, Chakraborty and his tribe are going to keep smiling for a long time.

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Take Two
What Tagore Never Imagined
The national anthem’s commercial evolution as deciphered standing in the movie halls of Bombay.
Rahul Bhatia

Someone, somewhere, for what might have seemed like a great reason at a time, decided that people visiting a cinema hall in Bombay needed an infusion of patriotism. And thus was born the concept of playing our national anthem before the movie. It took some getting used to. Attendees stood up self-consciously. Some tried making a point by not standing up. Some talked on the phone. Some were beaten up for being patriotic sitting down (it is clearly not possible from this position).

But as they do, years passed, and because people had given up resistance long before, they stood up instinctively. No harm in a minute’s worth of standing. This captive audience was subject to various renditions of the anthem. Sometimes, depending on the theatre, the anthem was instrumental. At times, there was nothing but a song and a fluttering flag. There was even AR Rahman and one of the many, many renditions of our anthem that he released around a decade ago.

But then came the Marathi acting community, lined up side by side, singing the anthem proudly in their crisp pajamas. This was, of course, slightly unusual from what had come before, but it would do. Even then, we had no idea it was only a warm-up. The latest version of the anthem-in-theatre is brought to you by Sony Entertainment. Specifically, it is brought to you by the wonderful singers in this season’s Indian Idol.

So on Sunday night, before a crowd got down to watching Inception, they were encouraged to stand up and pay respect to what they realised was a marketing vehicle for a melodramatic TV singing competition. This is the national anthem as advertisement.

Cricket watchers will be struck by an acute sense of déjà vu. Sony Max, which broadcasts the Indian Premier League, recently produced what was possibly the most ad-stuffed cricketing event in memory. 

We believe that the term one applies to these Idols singing the anthem in a confined space is ‘product placement’ of Indian Idol. This is a fine space to be in. What it ensures is that people who do not stand up and pay attention to your ad will be given grief. It is genius. Congratulations.

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Interruption
Who Moved My Sholay?
Alok Singh

This 15 August, when Sholay turns 35, you will not be able to buy a DVD to relive the magic of this blockbuster. DVDs of the movie have been off the shelves since May 2010, says Rakesh Kainth, who runs Horizon Music Shop, a music and movies store in Delhi’s Green Park. Horizon had been selling about 30 copies of the DVD per month when it was available, no mean number considering that new releases like 3 Idiots sell about 200 DVDs. The reason for Sholay’s disappearing DVD act is a restraint order against Moser Baer, says a spokesperson for the company. While Moser Baer reportedly bought its rights from Ultra India, Pritish Nandy Communications went ahead and bought the same rights from Sascha Sippy, a member of the family that made the film. And thus the logjam. While Moser Baer did not comment further, Sascha Sippy had this to say to Open: “Moser Baer is a bloody infringer...”

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Army
Suicide on Call
Pallavi Polanki

Of all the social problems that cell phones have been accused of aggravating, this one has to be the most surprising: driving soldiers to suicide! So much so, according to media reports, the Army even considered banning cell phones. The logic: keeping in constant touch with family only makes soldiers more emotionally vulnerable. According to research by the Defence Institute of Psychological Research, family-related problems dominate causes for suicide.

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Judgment
The Worth of Homemakers
Pallavi Polanki

After being categorised with beggars and prisoners in the Census for ‘not being engaged in economically productive work’, homemakers’ contribution to society was recently acknowledged by the Supreme Court. It urged Parliament to amend laws such as the Motor Vehicles Act to fix compensation when a road accident victim is a homemaker. For this, the value of the homemaker’s work will have to be assessed. In a landmark judgment, the apex court awarded Rs 6 lakh compensation to Arun Agarwal, husband of Renu Agarwal, an accident victim. This, after a tribunal which had fixed the compensation at Rs 6 lakh reduced it to Rs 2.5 lakh. When Arun’s appeal to the High Court was dismissed, he moved the SC. Is Parliament listening?

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Bunkers
Dig Deep for a Disaster
Alok Singh

If a nuclear war were imminent, what would be the silver lining? A company called Vivos Network (terravivos.com) has launched a chain of survival shelters in the US, in which almost everyone is eligible to buy up to 100 square feet of personal space. There would be large common areas as well. Twenty such survival shelters (which can hold up to 200 people each) are proposed to come up near major American cities, each equipped with supplies to enable autonomous living for up to a year. And they aren’t too expensive either: $50,000 for an adult, $25,000 for a child and no charge for a well-behaved cat or dog.

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Birdline
Plight for Freedom
Pramila N. Phatarphekar

Unofficially, 15 August is disability day for Delhi’s birds. Each year, pigeons, crows and doves lose their independence when kite fliers get into parks and clamber onto roofs for ritual patangbaazi. As diamond-like fliers slice into each other in the skies, the glass-coated manja often cuts into bird’s wings, feet and through their delicate bones. Post patangbaazi, you see birds on the streets, helplessly entangled in manja and often maimed for life. No one can stop these kite fliers, but you can help. If you spot a trapped, injured bird, call any of these 24-hour bird rescue helplines: 9810029698, 9810129698, 9868355222, 9212111116.   

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Challan
Traffic Violaters Facebooked
TCA Sharad Raghavan

Rash drivers, beware! The Delhi Traffic Police (DTP) has a new weapon in its arsenal: Facebook. In an innovative step to enhance public awareness, DTP has created its own page on the social networking site. At last count, 20,487 people ‘liked’ the page. And,  many have even put up photos taken from cell phone cameras of traffic law violations, such as cars with black tinted windows, broken number plates, bike riders without helmets, etcetera. Wherever possible, the DTP has issued challans on the basis of these photos. What they didn’t expect was the number of photos of policemen themselves breaking the rules.

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Linguaphiles
Friends of Urdu
Jatin Gandhi

It is a rare occasion in Parliament when leaders of all parties agree with one another. And when they do, you know vote-bank politics is lurking around the corner. It started during zero-hour one fine afternoon in the Lok Sabha. Basudeb Acharia of the CPM and Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI backed what SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had to say. Their bitter parting in 2008 notwithstanding, when Yadav drew the attention of the Government and fellow MPs to the state of Urdu language newspapers, he got support from the Left on the matter. Yadav was speaking for Urdu barely a fortnight after he had apologised to “the entire country and Muslims in particular” for his association with Kalyan Singh. “If you want to wipe out a community, you target its language,” he said, adding that government institutions were doing exactly that by not advertising in Urdu newspapers. The conspiracy to wipe out Urdu, he said, was aimed at ultimately hurting India’s Muslims. Of course, he used the opportunity to demand job reservation for Muslims too. No sooner had Yadav stopped speaking than Gopinath Munde, the BJP’s deputy leader in the house, extended support to Yadav’s cause. BSP leader Dara Singh Chauhan too discovered that his views were not different from the SP leader’s and the BJP’s. Leader after leader spoke in favour of Mulayam Singh’s demand that advertisements be restored to Urdu papers. Union ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad and Farooq Abdullah found themselves concurring with the BJP’s Shatrughan Sinha and Ganesh Singh. Abdullah even praised Bollywood for its service to Urdu. Azad praised Munde. The CPI and CPM found support in their concern for Urdu in Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee’s broken Urdu. Pranab Mukherjee assured action. Everyone agreed with everyone and the House adjourned for lunch. Long live Urdu!

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victimisation
Receiving End of Familial Loyalty
Anil Budur Lulla

The suspension of a senior IAS officer by the Tamil Nadu government on charges of forging a caste certificate to claim an SC quota appointment in services, has taken a distinct political turn. C Umashankar now has the backing of former CM and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, whom he had nailed in a cremation shed scam in 1996. She was later acquitted.

‘It’s very clear that the government shunted him out after a reconciliation between Karunanidhi’s close family members and his grand-nephews, the Maran brothers,’ she charged in a statement.

In 2008, Karunanidhi drafted Umashankar to head Arasu Cable TV Corporation, a state government multi-system operator for cable television, to break the monopoly of the Marans’ Sumangali Cable Vision. But after the kiss and make-up, the Marans apparently put pressure on the CM to get rid of Umashankar and dug up dirt on him. Umashankar has now approached the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, claiming that he is being victimised.

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Opportunism
Trinamool Maoist Congress?
Jaideep Mazumdar

CPM leader Sitaram Yechury wasn’t being glib when he dubbed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) as the Trinamool Maoist Congress. Monday’s ‘apolitical’ rally at Lalgarh was indicator enough of the ties—even if loose and unstructured—that exist between the TMC and Maoists. The People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA)—a frontal wing of Maoists—mobilised villagers and ensured a full turnout at the rally.  Mamata’s pronouncements echoed Maoist demands like halting anti-Maoist operations. All this  should leave no doubt that Mamata is open to taking the help of Maoists to uproot the CPM from West Bengal. It is an open secret that armed Maoist cadres played a major role in the Nandigram agitation, which is paying such rich political dividends to the TMC. Post-Nandigram, Mamata tried to distance herself from Maoists and even succeeded to some extent. With the TMC becoming a strong force (after the protracted agitations and bloodshed) in all of East Midnapore district, the party has been able to push Maoists away from the district. Mamata is hoping to repeat this strategy—use Maoists to defeat the CPM, become strong and then drive away these Maoists—in parts of Bengal where Maoists are strong now. But this political strategy could go dangerously wrong. Maoists have learnt their lessons from Nandigram and will never allow the Trinamool to grow powerful in areas under their influence. Instead, they will ride piggyback on the Trinamool to get a toehold in new areas. If Mamata thinks that Maoists will facilitate her political triumph next year without extracting their pound of flesh, she couldn’t be more wrong. And Bengal, and India at large, will ultimately have to pay a heavy price for Mamata’s blunders.

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Reach Out
The State of Azad
Rahul Pandita

The alleged fake encounter of senior Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar, alias Azad, finally reached Indian Parliament on 10 August thanks to the rally organised in West Bengal’s Lalgarh by Mamata Banerjee and social activists like Swami Agnivesh. There, Mamata termed Azad’s killing a murder. Opposition parties, mainly the BJP, raised this issue in Parliament, asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to come clean on Azad. Though it is clear that the BJP has no interest in finding out the truth  behind Azad’s death, it has realised that it can create a headache for the Congress by cleverly drawing parallels with the Sohrabuddin case in Gujarat. 

Notwithstanding the BJP and its opportunism, it would do Indian democracy good if a judicial probe into Azad’s death is announced. While Home Minister P Chidamabaram had outright rejected this demand, Manmohan Singh had promised Swami Agnivesh, who was invited by the Home Ministry to initiate a dialogue with Maoists, that something will be done in this regard. However, many days have passed and there has been no word on it so far. 

On August 10 itself, the Prime Minister finally reached out to Kashmiri youth in a televised address, assuring them that the Centre had all good intentions for the people of Kashmir. But, so far, none of this has been done for people who have been torn apart by the endless cycle of violence in Naxal areas. Ordering a probe into Azad’s death could be a very good beginning.

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14 August 2010 - 20 August 2010