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THE RAPID TEST FIASCO The DMs: Covid’s Action Heroes
MAY 11, 2020 `60
www.indiatoday.in
REGISTERED NO. DL(ND)-11/6068/2018-20; U(C)-88/2018-20; FARIDABAD/05/2020-22 LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT
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COVID-19 IMPACT
HOW SAFE IS YOUR JOB?
EXPERTS SAY NO INDUSTRY IS IMMUNE,
SO EXPECT PAY CUTS OR WORSE
FROM THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
obs are always the central issue in any economy. got cancelled and units are unable to repay loans due to the
J Elections are won and lost on unemployment
figures. After all, they are about human beings.
People have to earn money from jobs for the
goods or services they first produce and then consume
COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown. Employers
cannot be expected to sustain their businesses if they are run-
ning at reduced capacity but having to pay the full workforce.
The other big concern is that India’s labour participation
which makes the wheels of the economy turn. The fear of rate has been slipping—from 47-48 per cent before demoneti-
the coronavirus spreading has led to a shutdown of large sation to just 35.5 per cent following the six weeks of lock-
parts of the economy. The Centre for Monitoring Indian down. It is still not clear that the lockdown will be lifted on
Economy (CMIE) estimates 120 million people have been May 3—several state chief ministers want it to be extended.
rendered jobless in one month of the lockdown. Of the total What is fuelling anxiety is the uncertainty over how long
406 million people employed in the country, the crisis will last. The head of an executive
only 20 per cent, or 81.2 million people, are hiring firm put it pithily, “We don’t even know
in the salaried class. While the pandemic whether we are in the beginning, middle or end
won’t spare them either, the future will be of the pandemic.”
grim for the remaining 324.8 million people
who are either daily wagers, self-employed or ore than any other event in recent history,
small farmers. This is not an Indian problem M the pandemic could create the largest In-
alone. According to the ILO (International dian ‘precariat’. This portmanteau of ‘precari-
Labour Organization), four out of five (81 per ous’ and ‘proletariat’ refers to a class of people
cent) people in the global workforce of 3.3 suffering an existence without predictability
billion are currently affected by full or partial or security. As a continuing condition, this has
workplace closures. It considers this the most consequences for the material and psychologi-
severe crisis since the end of World War II. cal welfare of the people and for social cohesion
The 40-day nationwide lockdown in Our October 16, 2017 cover as a whole. This is a factor that should cause
India, which has kept over a billion people serious worry to governments across the world.
indoors and is the largest mass quarantine in Our cover story, written by Executive Edi-
human history, seems to have kept infec- tor M.G. Arun and Deputy Editor Shwweta
tions and deaths low as compared to the rest Punj, examines the Indian economy to ask the
of the world, but extracted a terrible eco- big question—‘How Safe is Your Job?’ This is a
nomic price. The most optimistic of forecasts question worrying millions across the coun-
doesn’t see the Indian economy growing try as it is enveloped by uncertainty, specially
at more than 1.5 per cent this year—some when we don’t have a social security net to
estimates say growth may even be negative. cushion job losses.
Naturally, this will have an enormous impact Having somewhat tamed the virus, the gov-
on employment. Post corona, there will be ernment needs to send the following message
three categories of jobs—those that will never to the district level where many crucial deci-
come back; those that will be temporarily lost Our May 20, 2019 cover sions are being made: that their performance
because of the slowdown in the economy and will be judged not only by how much they have
will return on its revival; and new jobs that controlled the spread of the infection but by the
will be created either in the same industries or in new ones. extent of the economic revival they have been able to generate
Multiple factors will be at play, some positive, others nega- in their area. The government needs to be friends with industry
tive. The trends of automation and artificial intelligence and remove all obstacles to an economic revival. They need to
will be accelerated. There will be a shift in global supply announce an MGNREGA-type package for the urban poor. The
chains, both inwards and outwards. We might be heading bureaucracy should abandon its instinctive suspicion of busi-
toward a phenomenon which is being termed “gated glo- ness and instead act as a facilitator in reviving industry, so that
balisation”. Consumer behaviour will not be easy to predict. people get back their jobs. Covid deaths may be getting meticu-
At the moment, sectors such as aviation, travel, hospital- lously recorded, but there is no record of people dying of chronic
ity, real estate, automobiles—which depend on people travel- hunger. This will be a silent killer with dire consequences. It is
ling, staying in hotels, buying homes, cars and consumer something we have to keep in mind and make economic revival
goods—have fallen like ninepins. Other sectors like exports a priority, otherwise we will pay a heavy price.
that are linked to global supply chains are withering away
because demand has dried up. Unemployment rates have
shot up from 6.7 per cent in mid-March to 23 per cent in the
first week of April. Of the 40-60 million jobs in the retail
sector, 11 million are likely to take a hit. More than 15 million
jobs could be lost in India’s export sector as half of all orders (Aroon Purie)
M AY 1 1 , 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 3
UPFRONT LEISURE
INSIDE
DECODING THE Q&A WITH LARA
JI0-FB DEAL PG 5 DUTTA PG 74
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COVER STORY JOBS R A PI D T E ST K I TS
30
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ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Anil Fernandes (Impact)
FAILING THE
COVID-19 TEST
OUT OF
IMPACT TEAM
Senior General Manager: Jitendra Lad (West)
General Manager: Mayur Rastogi (North),
Upendra Singh (Bangalore), Kaushiky Gangulie (East)
The low accuracy of the Chinese-
WORK
GROUP CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: Vivek Malhotra made rapid antibody testing kits has
SALES AND OPERATIONS: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager hurt the containment strategy in many
Deepak Bhatt, Senior General Manager (National Sales)
Vipin Bagga, General Manager (Operations) states. Where did we go wrong?
Rajeev Gandhi, Deputy General Manager (North)
Syed Asif Saleem, Regional Sales Manager (West)
With the economy
S Paramasivam, Deputy Regional Sales Manager (South) in a pandemic seizure, D I S T R I C T M AG I S T R AT E S
Piyush Ranjan Das, Senior Sales Manager (East)
no industry is
Volume XLV Number 19; For the week
really immune, though
some are more
vulnerable than others.
34 LEADING FROM
THE FRONT
India’s districts are ground zero
May 5-11, 2020, published on every Friday Expect pay cuts
in the war against COVID-19. How
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UPFRONT
INDIA’S MEDICAL SWAMITVA: RURAL
DIPLOMACY PROPERTY CARDS
PG 12 PG 16
FAC E B O O K- J I O
A WIN-WIN DEAL?
By Manu Kaushik
L
ast June, when social media ance Industries (RIL) subsidiary (Jio can initiate the interaction on What-
giant Facebook made an Platforms) presented itself, Facebook sApp, go to the JioMart page, finalise
investment in Meesho, an grabbed it with glee. their grocery buying list, connect with
online marketplace for resellers Within days of signing the the retail store on WhatsApp, and
in India, its intentions had become Rs 43,574 crore deal, announced on then pick up the order from a kirana
somewhat clear. For the first 12 years of April 22, for Facebook to pick a 9.99 store. The online payment system—of
its existence beginning February 2004, per cent stake in Jio Platforms, both either WhatsApp or JioMoney—has
Facebook was busy building user base; sides have got down to business rather reportedly not been integrated into the
in 2016, it breached the next growth quickly. In the fourth week of April, RIL transactions yet.
frontier: the online marketplace. For subsidiary Reliance Retail’s online-to- But the kirana is just one part of
the past three or so years, Facebook has offline platform JioMart has collabo- the larger ‘new commerce’ project that
been acquiring companies and launch- rated with WhatsApp in three neigh- RIL chairman and managing director
ing new products in this space. So when bourhoods of Mumbai (Navi Mumbai, Mukesh Ambani had launched nearly
an opportunity to invest in a Reli- Thane and Kalyan), where customers two years ago. While announcing the
Illustration by NILANJAN DAS M AY 1 1 , 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 5
UPFRONT
Facebook deal recently, RIL said, ‘This 2.40 lakh crore in 2018-19. ‘Cash infu-
partnership will accelerate India’s sion from the deal and closure of the Rs
all-round development, fulfilling the
needs of Indian people and the Indian
economy. Our focus will be India’s 60
`43,574 7,000 crore stake sale to [British energy
giant] BP in the oil marketing JV should
mean a cash infusion of over Rs 50,000
CRORE
million micro, small and medium busi- crore and bring down net debt,’ says a
what Facebook
nesses, 120 million farmers, 30 million CLSA report.
spent to pick a 9.99%
small merchants and millions of small stake in Jio Platforms Jio Platforms has witnessed its en-
and medium enterprises in the informal terprise value soar to Rs 4.62 lakh crore.
sector, in addition to empowering people Last December, brokerage Axis Capital
seeking various digital services.’ estimated Jio’s enterprise value to touch
Even though the Facebook-RIL
partnership might seem like a perfect
marriage to most industry experts and
`4.62 Rs 4.64 lakh crore in 2023-24. Jio
Platforms is a larger entity that houses
all digital ventures of RIL—the Jio suite
LAKH CRORE
analysts, it lacks clarity on the finer of apps, digital investments (KaiOS,
Enterprise value
details, such as how things will move Haptik) and big data, AI (artificial
of Jio Platforms
forward. After the initial announce- intelligence) and IoT (internet of things)
ments, both partners have not shared capabilities. Jio remains the crown jewel
additional information on future among those investments. “With access
388
strategy, revenue-sharing aspects and to capital, data and Facebook tools, RIL
conflict-resolution policies wherever can jumpstart its new commerce ven-
there are overlaps. RIL, particularly, has MILLION
ture,” says a top telecom analyst working
not spoken about how much progress it with both entities.
Jio’s subscriber base Facebook
has made towards tapping those mil- may look to benefit from
RIL has battles lined up on other
lions of small merchants and SMEs. Go- fronts. Its oil refining and petrochemi-
ing by the recent moves of Ambani and cals businesses have shrunk considerably
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, both due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Its $15
billionaires harbour ambitions of mak- billion deal with Saudi Aramco an-
ing it big in the retail commerce space. nounced last year is also at risk of being
While Ambani wants to give a tough called off after the government report-
time to Amazon and Flipkart in India, edly asked a court to restrain the deal.
Zuckerberg’s ambitions are global. Facebook is looking at benefitting
In recent years, Facebook has from the deal in primarily two areas: ac-
accelerated efforts to venture into cess to Jio’s 388 million subscriber base,
e-commerce. After the acquisition of which would further game the online
Meesho, last December it acquired vid- ad market in its favour. However, it’s
eo-shopping start-up Packagd, which going to be a long haul before Facebook
lets users purchase products directly via begins mining Jio’s subscriber data and
live-streaming. monetising it. “It would have been hard
Credit Suisse says Facebook has been of overlap is high in the Facebook-RIL for Facebook to crack such a deal if RIL
building features within its app that deal, we expect both to move towards were not involved. No one knows the
enable commerce transactions, including a revenue-sharing model, especially in regulatory business better than them,”
the recent introduction of the ‘Checkout’ areas like payments, offerings to SMEs says the telecom analyst.
feature, which allows users to complete and content,” says Tarun Pathak, associ- With RIL on its side, Facebook can
the entire transaction without having to ate director at Counterpoint Research, a handle some regulatory hurdles it has
leave the app. ‘Facebook’s focus has been global industry analysis firm. been facing in India—one of its largest
to drive its advertising engine, which Facebook and RIL could gain much markets outside the US. The company
is not surprising given that advertising from the deal. Jio Platforms’ equity sale has an estimated 328 million users on
revenues represent 98.5 per cent of the would bring down RIL’s debt at a time Facebook and 400 million on WhatsApp
firm’s total revenues... Now, more re- when cash conservation is critical for in India. A big chunk (about 60 per cent)
cently, it has shown intent to venture into debt-ridden entities. As per Hong Kong- of them, though, would be same across
commerce,’ says a Credit Suisse report. based brokerage and investment group the platforms. Despite a beta launch
“Across the globe, we are seeing CLSA, RIL’s consolidated net debt and of its WhatsApp Pay service in India
internet giants and telcos converge and other liabilities were estimated at Rs in 2018, permissions for a full rollout
cross paths. Although the probability 2.35 lakh crore in 2019-20 as against Rs haven’t come through yet.
6 INDIA TODAY M AY 1 1 , 2 02 0 Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
POINT OF V IEW
Business as Usual
By Amita Baviskar
W
ith a third of the world’s humans Clouded leopards and tigers live here. So do
under lockdown, the skies are blue more than half of the bird species found in all
and rivers run clear. Bears, nilgai of India. Rare flora and fauna inhabit these
and elephants wander through deserted city richly storied forests. In 2010, the ministry
streets. If these signs of Nature reclaiming itself had designated this as an ‘inviolate’
the planet unsettle the order of life-as- area, during Jairam Ramesh’s tenure.
we-know-it, worry not. The ministry of But now, it is to be dammed for a 3,097
environment, forest and climate change is MW project, a joint venture between the
working hard to ensure that environmental Arunachal government and Jindal Energy.
destruction continues as before. Not only environmentalists are aghast
The COVID-19 pandemic should have at Etalin. Geologists point out that major
led the ministry to pause and press the risks associated with its two dams are
reset button. There is credible evidence being ignored. The mountains and valleys
linking zoonotic diseases to the loss of of the Dibang basin sit atop a seismically
habitat for wild biodiversity. Not that we active zone. In addition, climate change is
need one more reason to protect what’s rapidly melting the glaciers feeding rivers
left of our once magnificent forests, rivers in the basin, creating lakes that are likely
and other ecosystems that sustain life to overflow and cause major floods and
on earth. However, various statutory landslides downstream. (The devastating
committees of the ministry are carrying floods of 2013 in Uttarakhand were in
on with business as usual. In April alone, part the result of such a melting of the
the Standing Committee of the National Chorabari glacier, feeding the Mandakini
Board for Wildlife (NBWL) approved coal river.) The Dibang river debouches into
mining inside the Dehing Patkai Elephant the Brahmaputra and the effects of an
Reserve in Assam. It allowed 768 hectares earthquake or flood will be felt all the way
(ha) of forests next to the Binog Wildlife into the densely populated floodplains of
Sanctuary in Uttarakhand to be cleared Assam. The new threats created by climate
for the Lakhwar-Vyasi dam project on change should make the ministry tread even
the Yamuna river. It gave the green signal more cautiously.
to all proposals for building highways, That the FAC is considering such a
transmission and railway lines through proposal shows how warped its priorities
national parks, sanctuaries and tiger have become. Union environment minister
corridors. As environmental lawyer Ritwick Prakash Javadekar tweeted that these
Dutta remarked, “If there is anything the projects promote “tourism, infrastructure,
The COVID- species inhabiting India’s protected areas employment and growth.” But what about
19 pandemic need to fear, it’s the members of the NBWL.” the environment? Meanwhile, Etalin and
should have led Though its mandate is to protect wildlife, other river projects on the Brahmaputra
the environment that mission seems to be missing in action. are pawns in an India-China contest of
ministry to The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of I-dammed-it-first, a race to claim the waters
pause and press the ministry also continues to entertain and of this transnational river.
the reset button. approve projects that should never have seen The COVID-19 pandemic is a reminder
There is credible the light of day. This month, a subcommittee of how interconnected the world is and how
evidence of the FAC recommended that the Etalin fragile our political and economic control
linking zoonotic hydropower project in the Dibang river basin over its complexity. Yet the environment
diseases to in Arunachal Pradesh be cleared. The project ministry persists in its wilful forgetfulness. ■
the loss of will destroy 1,150 ha of forest in an area
habitat for wild where three different bio-geographic regions Amita Baviskar is an
biodiversity meet to create a megadiversity hotspot. environmental sociologist
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY M AY 1 1 , 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 7
T H E J O U R N E Y T O WA R D S F I N A N C I A L F R E E D O M
Don’t Stop Your SIPs
SIPs benefit from stock market downs and ups. Don’t let this down market cycle
influence your decision to stop investing. Take a pause instead
the actions are uncalled
for, going by how the
stock markets have
fared over the years.
When one redeems SIP
investments prematurely,
they may incur an exit
load as well as capital
gains tax, which further
impacts the worth of
their investments.
Likewise, stopping
SIPs, especially when
investing for the long
term is a bad idea.
Investing towards a
you break down your
investments over a
period of time in a
O ver the years,
investments
through SIPs (systematic
long term investments
and the number of such
investors is only on the
Flipside of
Stopping SIPs
small and steady
manner, which makes
SIP investing suitable
investment plan) rise. Yet, there are many ,PSDFWV \RXU ɾQDQFLDO
inequity mutual funds people who are new to JRDOV goals. With most
have become the new investing, who do get 7KHUH LV RSSRUWXQLW\ investments tied to long
norm. The undisputed anxious every time the ORVV ZKHQ \RX VWRS
convenience and stock markets fluctuate. LQYHVWLQJ such as retirement,
simplicity has without The anxiety 
retirement where one S&P BSE SENSEX OVER DIFFERENT HEALTH ALERTS
could extend their work
life by a few years to 45,000
adjust to change in the 40,000 Chikangunya Indian Swine Flu -
goal value. So, before Epidemic (India) 2015
S&P BSE SENSEX Value
35,000 SARS Outbreak -
you stop SIPs, think how - 2006 H1N1 Flu Pandemic -
2002
30,000 2009
the action will impact
the goal for which the 25,000
investment was initiated 20,000
Zika Virus Epidemic -
15,000 2016
10,000 Ebola Virus -
Long-term investing 2014
COVID-19
Pandemic
and short term 5,000
pains 0
Think of long-term Jan 2001 Jan 2005 Jan 2010 Jan 2015 Jan 2020
Time
investing as the progress Source: S&P BSE SENSEX (www.bseindia.com)
of a child from birth
to adulthood. Just the
pandemic in 2002, scenarios from the eye opener for many
way a small child learns
Swine Flu in 2009, Zika accompanying graph. seasoned investors
to form words and
Virus in 2016 and others. Let us assume one who wrongly assume
sentences or learns to
A casual observation invested `5,000 through that the SIP investment
walk with a fair share
indicates that there are monthly SIPs in the S&P value can never turn
of falls before they
short period of market BSE SENSEX from Jan negative. Today, some
start running; investing
turbulence and falls, but 2001 to April 2020; a investors may be seeing
in equities is also
over the long period of period of 19 years and the value of their SIP
5-, 10- or 15-years; the 4 months. The total investments fall below
with its cycles of falls
stock market indices investment in this period the investments made.
and rise. Take for
have only gone up. works to `11.4 lakh and Such investors may
instance, the journey of
its worth `36,62,357 consider exiting or
the S&P BSE SENSEX
Futile to cancel SIPs earning 10.83% SIP stopping the SIPs; they
Values over its more
than four decade history
in the short run returns (XIRR). should not take such a
There are many Now, this period had hasty decision.
– it has had its share of
disadvantages of several dips and gains Let us consider the
gains and losses over
cancelling or stopping and months when the investment period
many short-term and
SIPs. To understand the SIP investment value from January 2005
medium-term phases.
impact of such moves, was lower than the to December 2009; a
We have witnessed a
let us consider a few invested sum. This is an
stock market fall so
far in 2020, owing to the value of S&P BSE
the Corona virus or SENSEX index jumped
Covid-19 pandemic. three times. It was also
SIP the period when the
Investing in equities S&P BSE Investment Investment
is advisable when it is Sensex Value (`) markets witnessed a
(`)
done for the long term
with a clear time line Jan-05 6555.94 5,000 5,000 in January 2008, and
and target goal in place. between Jan-Oct 2008,
Jan-06 9919.89 65,000 85,733
If you look at the way the S&P BSE SENSEX
the S&P BSE SENSEX Jan-07 14090.92 1,25,000 1,93,014 witnessed a massive
has moved from January Jan-08 17648.71 1,85,000 3,08,664
58% fall. The S&P BSE
2001 to March 2020 SENSEX was 20,300 on
Jan-09 9424.24 2,45,000 2,09,676 Jan 1, 2008 and ended
(See: S&P BSE SENSEX
Dec-09 17464.81 3,00,000 4,58,933 at 8,509 on Oct 27,
alerts), there have been 2008.
Monthly Sip of `5,000 invested in S&P BSE SENSEX on the last working day of the
several health-related month. Past performance may or may not be sustained in the future.
An investor with
scares. There was SARS Source: S&P BSE SENSEX monthly SIP investment
An investor education initiative by
of `5,000 in the S&P for direct debit may take
BSE SENSEX from longer or skip the SIP
January 2005 would S&P BSE SIP Investment date before registering
Investment
have reasons to worry Sensex Value (`) for SIP pause.
(`)
when his investments And, if you are
in January 2009 were Jan-14 20513.85 5,000 5,000 investing directly through
lesser in value compared Jan-15 29182.95 65,000 76,035 an AMC; you could
to his investments (See: communicate to the
Table 1). If this investor Jan-16 24870.69 1,25,000 1,20,123
AMC whose fund you are
had exited at this point it Jan-17 27655.96 1,85,000 1,95,834 investing in to pause your
would have been a loss. SIP. Taking a pause is
Jan-18 35965.02 2,45,000 3,22,664
However, just 12 months better than stopping
later, his investments Dec-18 36068.33 3,00,000 3,79,321 your SIP because
would have risen and Monthly Sip of `5,000 invested in S&P BSE SENSEX on the last working day of the restarting a paused SIP
earned a handsome month. Past performance may or may not be sustained in the future. is far more convenient
Source: S&P BSE Sensex (www.bseindia.com)
18% SIP returns (XIRR) and easier than restarting
a stopped SIP. In this
investment period. from fund house to fund way, you can continue
Let us consider house. In general, the your habit of disciplined
another scenario SIP Pause facility can investments once the
between January 2014 only be availed once in pause duration ends.
and December 2018. the lifetime of the fund. Investors could
A monthly SIP For instance, if you were contact their advisors
investment of `5,000 investing `5,000 through or reach out to the
in this period would continue SIPs owing to monthly SIP in a fund AMC to execute an
have dipped in value in cash flow problems or from January 2019, SIP pause. Instead of
January 2016. Again, the anxiety may be too and in February 2020, completely stopping their
in this scenario too, if high. In such a context, decided to take a break investments; they could
the investor had stayed a feature with SIPs and pause your SIP in reduce the amount of
invested and not exited, which often gets missed March 2020. SIP they commit. This
the investments would is the flexibility to take To initiate a SIP process would entail
a break from investing pause, you need to stopping the existing SIPs
within a year. At the by opting for the SIP inform the AMC and and restarting a new
Pause facility. ! "
period, the investment is form. You should forms. This process
`3.79 What is SIP pause? provide substantial would ensure that regular
lakh on an investment Some AMCs allow you notice to take a gap investments continue,
of `3 lakh at 10.55% SIP to take a break from in SIP investment and even though it would
returns (XIRR). regular SIP investing not rush for a pause be lesser.
Investors can take with the SIP Pause a few days prior to A timeless lesson
a lesson from being feature. The SIP Pause the SIP investment to remember with SIP
patient when investing feature is temporary date, because a pause investment is that it is a
in the stock markets for and is usually for a friend when it comes to
the long term and stay period of up to three only after a month or long-term investing. Just
invested through the months for monthly even two. The reason the way today, we are
course of the investment SIPs and once in case for such a delay is advised to stay home and
period. But there are of half-yearly or yearly because sometimes, the stay safe; stay invested
instances when one SIPs. After this, your SIP communication between with SIPs to achieve your
restarts automatically. the AMC and the bank
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BOOKS
THE MAJORITARIAN mutual respect—he points to the prac-
tice of volunteers addressing one another
with the honorific “ ji” as especially
BARGAIN powerful for youth accustomed to being
treated with contempt—that attracted
By Joel Lee him to the Sangh.
The mutual respect, however, proves
false. The turning point in the narrative
comes when, following a joint RSS-
VHP function in his village in honour
of “martyred” karsevaks whose ashes
I COULD NOT BE
are being carried through the region,
HINDU: THE STORY OF
A DALIT IN THE RSS Meghwanshi has his family laboriously
By Bhanwar Meghwanshi prepare and pack a dinner to feed the
(Translated by Nivedita Menon) honoured assembly of sants and sadhus,
NAVAYANA only to discover the next morning that
` 399; 240 pages
his Hindutva mentors dumped the
entire meal on the roadside after leaving
his village, having never intended to eat
W
hen the Rashtriya Sway- majoritarian myth is merely a first food cooked by Dalit hands. Devastated,
amsevak Sangh (RSS) step. Ultimately, the RSS achieves its Meghwanshi seeks redress from higher
held a much-publicised aims through acts of intimidation and RSS authorities, only to find that the
three-day lecture series violence against Muslims and Chris- bad faith was not a local aberration, but
in New Delhi in September 2018, atte- tians—acts orchestrated by the Sangh’s the institutional norm.
ndees were greeted by two gigantic savarna leadership, but carried out, in From a Hindutva foot soldier, Megh-
free-standing portraits. On one side, an irony painfully explored throughout wanshi transforms in the following
unsurprisingly, rose K.B. Hedgewar, the memoir, by backward caste and years into an Ambedkarite truth seeker
founding sarsanghchalak of the RSS Dalit volunteers stigmatised by the very committed to anti-caste struggle and
and an early exponent of its ideology of religion they are ostensibly defending. interreligious bridge-building. As a
Hindu supremacy. More startling was One could hardly ask for a more student leader, teacher, journalist and
the occupant of the adjoining panel: credentialled eyewitness. First inducted activist with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti
Bhimrao Ambedkar, the 20th century’s into the RSS by his sixth-standard Sangathan, he takes part in a series
most formidable and trenchant critic of geography teacher, Meghwanshi was by of grassroots struggles—over temple
that very ideology. The display implied the age of 15 a battle-scarred karsevak entry, mosque destruction and trident-
that Dr Ambedkar somehow approved with jail time, street fights with Mus- distribution in Rajasthan, the Gujarat
of, or participated in, the Hindu nation- lims, and bruises from the lathis of the pogrom, and more—that pit him against
alist project of which, in fact, virtually Uttar Pradesh police to his credit. In his his erstwhile RSS confederates and
his entire oeuvre and political career home district of Bhilwara, Rajasthan, make the book a chronicle not just of an
were a systematic condemnation. he swiftly ascended the Sangh’s ranks to extraordinary life but of three conse-
If this effort to appropriate Ambed- become, before the age of 20, pramukh quential decades of the nation’s history.
kar—and with him, Dalits—seems in- or chief of the city office. He received No other book exposes so viscerally
credible, Bhanwar Meghwanshi’s potent weapons training—lathis, knives, Molo- the instrumentalism of the RSS effort to
insider account of the RSS reveals that tov cocktails—from his RSS mentors. In woo the disprivileged castes even while
attempts like these are but the polished a fast-paced narrative delivered in bold, nurturing casteism deep in its savarna
tip of a vast and menacing iceberg. In straightforward prose, Meghwanshi heart. In the present moment, when the
I Could Not Be Hindu: The Story of a describes the culture of militancy and Faustian bargain that Hindutva extends
Dalit in the RSS, Meghwanshi guides to Dalits and backward castes has never
the reader into the parallel universe of been more politically salient, the lessons
those RSS schools, shakhas and camps
THE BOOK EXPOSES of Meghwanshi’s searing memoir could
that target the youth of disprivileged
THE INSTRUMEN- not be more urgent. ■
castes for indoctrination and training
TALISM OF THE RSS
in militant ethnoreligious nationalism.
EFFORT TO WOO Joel Lee is assistant professor of
In these institutions, the inculcation of
THE DISPRIVILEGED anthropology, Williams College,
disregard for historical fact in favour of
CASTES WHILE NUR- Massachusetts
TURING CASTEISM IN
ITS SAVARNA HEART
M AY 1 1 , 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 1 1UPFRONT
INDIA AS THE
PHARMACY OF
E X T E R N A L A F FA I R S
THE WORLD
INDIA’S India has taken on the critical
task of supplying medicines
to countries across the globe
MEDICAL by enhancing production
and expediting export clear-
DIPLOMACY
ances to meet the explosion
in demand for drugs such as
Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)
and Paracetamol. Medicines
S
oon after the COVID-19 pandemic have been delivered as gifts to
broke out, the ministry of external af- developing countries and as
fairs (MEA) geared up to respond to the commercial exports to those
complex situation that had to be dealt who could afford to buy them
with on an emergency basis. Employing
what foreign secretary Harsh Shringla calls “medi-
cal diplomacy”, the MEA has played a sterling role
in ensuring that India acted as both the pharmacy
of the world and a global health provider. It has
supplied vital medicines as a gift to over 40 coun-
tries and ensured commercial exports of them to
another 60 countries, including those in the US
and Europe. It has organised rescue and evacuation
operations at short notice and arranged for emer-
gency medical supplies, including personnel, to
assist a number of developing countries. India has
reinvigorated the SAARC, despite Pakistan’s dour-
ness, by not only forming a fund, but also using
technology for international interaction and train-
ing of medical personnel. And it is engaged with the Mexico
world through the G-20 and bilateral interactions
in virtual conversations with over 100 countries to Medicines
enhance the global pandemic response. gifted to Colombia
Ecuador
— Raj Chengappa Humanitarian
aid given to
South
America
HELPING HAND An Indian Air Force mission to transport
essential supplies to the Maldives under Operation Sanjeevani Chile
HUMANITARIAN
ASSISTANCE
Rapid response teams,
consisting of doctors, nurses
and paramedics (from the
armed forces), have been
deployed to the Maldives and
Kuwait. Operation Sanjeevani
delivered 6.2 tonnes of medi-
cines and hospital supplies
to the MaldivesGifts Exports Procurement
HCQ HCQ facilitation
10
MILLION
26 445
MILLION
60 MEA officials are
also part of the
Government’s
tablets countries tablets countries empowered group
gifted supplied* exported supplied involved in the
procurement of
medical supplies,
Paracetamol Paracetamol including personal
protective
1.32
MILLION 15 619
MILLION 50
equipment and
testing kits
from countries
manufacturing
tablets countries tablets countries these items
gifted supplied exported supplied
*Includes Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Seychelles, Mauritius, and
countries in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, South America and the Caribbean
Ukraine Kazakhstan
Armenia Afghanistan
Syria Nepal
Caribbean Kuwait Bhutan
Egypt
Mali Niger Myanmar WE HAVE
Bangladesh
Senegal
Chad
West
TAKEN A
Sierra Leone
Burkina Faso
Asia HUMANITARIAN
Uganda Maldives AND FAR-SIGHTED
Republic VIEW THAT WILL
of Congo DR Congo Seychelles STAND US IN GOOD
Brazil
Zambia
Mauritius STEAD IN THE
Zimbabwe POST-PANDEMIC
Argentina
Eswatini WORLD ”
Madagascar HARSH VARDHAN
Africa SHRINGLA
Foreign Secretary
Essential supplies and medicines Zambia, Niger, Eswatini, Chad, with a total of 28 countries in this
have been delivered to 17 countries Mali, the DR Congo, the Republic region receiving medical supplies
in our extended neighbourhood, in of Congo, Senegal, Burkina Faso, from India either as humanitarian
the Indian Ocean, West Asia, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe have assistance or on the basis of com-
Central Asia and South America received or are in the process of mercial contracts. Special consid-
receiving humanitarian supplies eration has been given to partner
Humanitarian aid supplies have
nations from the region, which
also been delivered to several Countries in Latin America have
include Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
countries in Africa. Uganda, also received special attention,
Colombia and Mexico
Source: MEAUPFRONT
OUTREACH (L-R) Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SAARC video conference; Indian
ambassador Ruchira Kamboj (right) hands over medical supplies to Bhutan’s health minister
EVACUATIONS
SAARC Initiatives FROM HOT ZONES
The MEA has also coordinated massive
On March 15, India organised a video conference incoming and outgoing evacuation
of leaders of SAARC countries, chaired by Prime exercises—and not just of Indian citizens
Minister Narendra Modi. A number of initiatives Ô The MEA has facilitated the evacuation of more
and projects have also been launched than 58,000 foreign nationals from India to 72
countries. This includes 4,834 Japanese nationals,
3,199 Germans, 2,937 Malaysians, 1,581 Israelis,
1,818 French nationals, 3,705 Americans, 2,026
Ô A COVID-19 emergency online training and the use Canadians, 6,265 UK nationals, 1,689 Australians,
fund, based on voluntary of digital resources like 2,688 Afghans, 1,062 Bhutanese nationals and
contributions, has been e-learning modules on key 1,182 Russians
created, to which India has aspects about the pandemic Ô The MEA coordinated the evacuation of 2,465
made $10 million available Ô India has activated its Indians and 48 foreigners from China (Wuhan),
including Iranian, Japanese and Italian nationals,
Ô On March 26, a video e-ITEC network, that
via special flights. Another 1,609 stranded Indian
conference of health gets medical experts to train
citizens were evacuated from Malaysia, Singa-
professionals was held, healthcare personnel in pore, Amsterdam and Paris via chartered flights
with representatives at the countries in the neighbour-
Ô Indian embassies across the world are maintain-
level of director-general hood. Resources include
ing contact with Indians stranded overseas. The
of health services from all webinars featuring top pro-
MEA promises to repatriate them when possible
SAARC nations fessionals from institutions
such as the AIIMS in Delhi
Ô To facilitate communica-
and PGI, Chandigarh
tion on patient manage-
ment, testing and disease Ô The SAARC Disaster THE BIG OUTREACH
surveillance, a WhatsApp Management Centre Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been
contact group of doc- in Gandhinagar, with the engaging with the leaders of G-20 and SAARC
tors from participating assistance of the MEA and countries through virtual meetings, and has had
nations was created other ministries, has set up over 34 interactions with counterparts across
a website (www.covid19- the world to work towards a common global
Ô A COVID-19 information response to the pandemic. Foreign minister S.
sdmc.org) linked to the of-
exchange platform, Jaishankar, too, has been working the phones to
ficial COVID-19 websites of
named COINEX, was devel- coordinate with his foreign counterparts. After
individual SAARC countries
oped by India to facilitate one such conversation with Chinese foreign
minister Wang Yi, Jaishankar tweeted, ‘Global
challenges require global cooperation’UPFRONT
S WA M I T VA S C H E M E
A SENSE OF
OWNERSHIP
By Manish Dixit
MANEESH AGNIHOTRI
VALID ADDRESS A village
house near Pilibhit, UP
S
hishupal Singh, a resident the scheme’s progress along with the have not been mapped on this scale.
of Arimal Yayi Tipu village Survey of India and the panchayati raj Agricultural economist Tazamul
in Kanpur Dehat in eastern and revenue departments of various Haque, who headed the panel that
Uttar Pradesh, has just heard states. According to the Centre, the conceived the Model Land Leasing Act,
of the Centre’s new Swamitva scheme, Swamitva scheme will unlock the ben- says the rural property card was long
which will allot property cards to every efits of owning rural properties. Apart overdue. He feels the scheme could solve
house in the village. Excited because he from market appreciation, the property many of the long-pending property
feels the value of their houses will go up, cards would stand as collateral for loans disputes in villages besides giving an
he is sure banks too will start looking at or advances from banks and financial identity to residential property in rural
villagers with new interest. Shishupal, institutions. An accurate survey of the areas. Data accruing from the exercise
whose wife is the gram pradhan, says properties will also help the gram pan- could also be linked to digitised data on
houses in the village carry little value chayats offer better civic services, be- land in the villages, he says.
now as there are no proper records sides enabling them to collect property But first, the states will have to sign
(land records now are kept by the ‘fam- taxes in the future. For the states, the MoUs with the Survey of India. Demar-
ily register’ at the panchayat office, a survey maps will be of immense use in cation of properties on the ground will
phenomenon peculiar to the state). He’s preparing future development schemes. be done by the villagers, gram panchay-
hoping the system will change with the The maps will be prepared by the ats and state revenue departments. The
Centre’s new initiative. Survey of India with the assistance of Survey of India and state agencies will
The Swamitva scheme, launched the revenue and panchayati raj depart- then determine open common lands,
by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ments of states. The Surveyor General government lands, gram sabha lands
Panchayati Raj Diwas—April 24—has of India, Lt Gen. (retd) Girish Kumar, and land owned by villagers. After the
a mammoth plan in the works: to use says the drone survey will produce survey is done, the state government
the latest drone model survey to map state-of-the-art HD photographs. Every will issue a notification to establish
every rural property in the 662,000 house will be shown with its measure- ownership rights. Any objections over
villages of the country over the next ments, including total area, covered these rights will be investigated by an
four years. Once the area, etc. Kumar says the officer of the revenue department. After
survey and legalities are AN ACCURATE village maps, prepared approval by the defence ministry, the
taken care of, owners Survey of India will hand over the maps
SURVEY OF THE on a scale of 500:1, will
will be issued a prop- be so comprehensive to the Centre and the concerned state
erty card with a house
LAND WILL with topography and departments. The property cards will be
number. The pilot phase
HELP GRAM street details—and a issued by the state authorities.
this year (2020-21) plans PANCHAYATS resolution accuracy of up The task ahead looks clear-cut, but
to cover over 100,000 OFFER BETTER to 10 cm—that they will in the villages, many will tell you that
villages in six states. CIVIC be unlike anything that there are complications. In states like
The panchayati raj SERVICES has been done before. He Madhya Pradesh, villagers have no
ministry will coordinate says even India’s cities records of their residential properties.
16 INDIA TODAY M AY 1 1 , 2 02 0CLEAR TITLES FOR VILLAGE
HOMES NOT SO CLEAR CUT
the last survey in Haryana was some 50
Ô WHAT IS ministry in coordination ment plans. The gram years ago. The situation is not too differ-
SWAMITVA? with the state panchayati panchayats will be able ent in other states.
Swamitva is a new cen- raj and revenue depart- to collect house tax now
Shishupal Singh, who is otherwise
tral scheme to grant legal ments and the Survey
recognition to residential of India Ô POSSIBLE ISSUES optimistic about the card, admits to
properties in rural areas. z Absence of property a few other issues. For one, with the
After they are mapped Ô THE BENEFITS records in villages number of families increasing, houses are
and cleared, houses in Legal recognition will z Property disputes already shown as divided into parts with
surveyed areas will be enable owners to within families, especial- residents in the voter list as occupants of
allotted numbers and monetise their property, ly in old settlements A,B or C section of it. The lekhpal (vil-
issued property cards access bank loans using z Ownership being
it as collateral. For the granted to houses on
lage clerk) in UP does maintain a map
Ô WHO WILL government, the updated illegally occupied land of the residential area, but the houses
EXECUTE IT maps will help in prepar- z Village politics, truant are bought and sold without any record.
The Union panchayati raj ing accurate develop- gram pradhans If a piece of land lies unoccupied in the
residential area, it is shown as barren and
not entered in the khatauni (an abstract
STAMPED AND NUMBERED that lists all holdings of an individual or
family). In some cases, a registered sale
deed for houses may exist, but even that is
Haryana Uttarakhand Uttar not evidence of title of the said property.
3,826 4,000 Pradesh
Supreme Court advocate Ashwini
7,652 17,048 53,622
Upadhyay highlights the complex way
1,07,242
Madhya villages are structured to poke holes in
Pradesh the Centre’s plan. He feels rural proper-
1,000 ties should be linked to Aadhaar cards.
55,100 At the moment, only those who are
leaving for good sell their houses in the
Maharashtra villages. They sell their lands and often
22,069 the value of their houses is included in
44,137
662,000 the price as there is no record of housing
Total no. of villages in
the country properties in rural areas. “Right now,
there is litigation even on the issue of
Karnataka
16,580 101,097 tethering buffaloes. Determining prop-
No. of villages in first erty titles in the extremely dense villages
33,157
Villages part of pilot survey phase of survey of UP won’t be easy either,” he says.
Total no. of villages (2020-21) Advocate Ramanand Goel points to
another vexing issue—village politics.
The pradhans will surely try to promote
their henchmen. Panchayat politics
In cases where a house is shared by many of these deals. Gupta also says anyway divides villagers in a big way; this
siblings, everyone will want to have a it will be very hard to identify rightful could become one more reason.
separate property card. Apart from owners of houses in rural MP as there Besides, each geographical zone will
this, villages have a complex structure. are no records at the gram panchayats. have its own peculiar problems associ-
There are adjacent houses and court- Ramanand Goel, a former presi- ated with the measurement of assets
yards, people pass freely through each dent of the Ghaziabad Tehsil Bar by drones. Illegal encroachments are a
other’s lands. All this will pose new Association, fears a spike in legal cases. problem in MP while UP has been evacu-
challenges once titles become an issue. The kutumb (family) register in UP ating illegal occupants. There will also be
MP Sarpanch Sangathan president contains names of every member in problems for specific communities, like
Somesh Gupta has even more serious a family, enough reason for litigation the tribals in MP who live in villages on
concerns. He worries that land-grabbers when it comes to whose name will app- the city’s outskirts. They have no proof to
could have a field day if the property ear on the property card. even establish their identity. On a posi-
card comes through. As it is, there are The problem also stems from tive note, experts say the property card
no property records, and many transac- the fact that land surveys have not plan could help the government identify
tions are for houses on illegal land. The been done in India for decades now. people who have amassed huge proper-
property card scheme could legitimise Surveyor General Kumar recalls that ties in rural areas. ■
Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY M AY 1 1 , 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 17UPFRONT
BOOKS
THE PEACE INTERLUDES
By Sumit Ganguly
G
iven the sheer significance of the of their respective, nascent states.
India-Pakistan relationship, the Raghavan also shows that despite the
paucity of careful and informed backdrop of the war over Kashmir, the two
scholarship about its origins and sides cooperated in other areas. To that
evolution is quite striking. Diplomatic his- end, they passed legislation to deal with
torians, political scientists and former poli- the extremely delicate question of women
cymakers have all written about the subject. who had been abducted in the upheaval
However, with marked exceptions, the bulk of Partition. Well-connected women from
of these works have been partial, polemical prominent families on both sides of the
and idiosyncratic. Worse still, because of the border played vital roles in working with
unavailability of suitable archival material other administrators to bring some relief
from either side of the border, till recently, to those women who had met this most
almost all writing on the subject was based ANIMOSITY AT BAY unfortunate fate.
on elite interviews, newspaper accounts and An Alternative Raghavan also provides an extensive
other documents in the public domain. History of the discussion of the attempt to forge a ‘no-war
India-Pakistan Rela-
Apart from these limitations, the bulk of tionship, 1947-1952 pact’, which ultimately resulted in failure.
the available work has focused on the under- By Pallavi Raghavan These discussions were carried out against
lying sources of discord as well as the crises HARPERCOLLINS a backdrop of steady population transfers,
` 396 (Kindle);
and wars that have marred this relationship. 260 pages growing acrimony in the mass media in
In this context, Pallavi Raghavan’s book, both countries and a flurry of diplomatic
Animosity at Bay, makes two important activity in other capitals, including pleas
contributions to the extant literature. At from Pakistan to the United Kingdom to
IN THE END, THE
the outset, the book is based upon careful, intervene in the troubled bilateral relation-
‘NO-WAR PACT’
painstaking and extensive archival research ship. In the end, the accord failed to mate-
FAILED TO MATE-
involving multi-country sources. rialise because neither side could muster
RIALISE BECAUSE
Its other contribution is substantive: the requisite domestic support to realise it.
NEITHER SIDE
Raghavan seeks to demonstrate that in That said, she emphasises that even after
COULD MUSTER
the years following the partition of British the prime ministerial correspondence had
THE REQUISITE
India and the creation of the two states, reached an impasse, Nehru continued to
DOMESTIC
the relationship, though ridden with the profess his goodwill towards Pakistan.
SUPPORT TO
Kashmir conflict, was not wholly hostile. Raghavan also provides a detailed acc-
REALISE IT
Instead, statesmen and bureaucrats in both ount of the process that led to the success-
countries cooperated on a range of bilateral ful realisation of the Indus Waters Treaty.
issues. These ran the gamut from questions of the disposal of Among the more quirky revelations is the role of an East Ger-
evacuee property, the sharing of the Indus river waters and man refugee and noted legal theorist, Frederich Berber, who
attempts at reaching a no-war pact. Even though all these was appointed advisor to Nehru on the Indus waters dispute.
subjects have been addressed in previous works, Raghavan, It is also worth noting that at the time neither side deemed the
through the deft use of newly-available archival material, has treaty to be a success but the best solution that was possible.
managed to bring greater nuance and clarity to many of these Raghavan’s careful examination of this period of India-
important and fraught subjects. Pakistan relations suggests that despite far-reaching differ-
She argues that the two sides managed to accommodate ences, the two countries reached some important settlements
each other on a host of issues shortly after Partition. Never- even as they were engaged in the demanding process of state-
theless, it is evident from much of her discussion and analysis building. Perhaps the understandings reached during this his-
that reaching such understandings was neither easy nor free torical period offers some small hope in tackling the myriad
of contention. For example, she contends that the members problems that currently plague the bilateral relationship. ■
of the Partition Council, the body that was responsible for the
division of a host of assets, tackled the tasks at hand calmly Sumit Ganguly is a distinguished professor of political
despite the horrors that the partition had wrought. She also science and holds the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and
shows that the key players tenaciously argued for the interests Civilizations at Indiana University, Bloomington
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