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JUDICIARY: LOST IN LOCKDOWN?

May 11, 2020 www.outlookindia.com

in the time of CORONA

Life &

Death

SPECIAL DIGITAL ISSUE

Are even grief and joy suspended during a lockdown? Chronicles

of birth and bereavement.

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COVER STORYPandemic or apocalypse, the cycle of life must go on. All plans and goals can be deferred, but not the inevitable. We explore how people are dealing with birth and death during the lockdown.

‹ N A V I G A T O R ›

12 | TEMPLE OF DOOMA liquidity crisis has resulted in Franklin Templeton freezing six of its debt funds. Should investors be worried?

16 | LITTLE BY LITTLEWhy microfinance is the key to restart the economy after the lockdown is over

20 | ABOUT TIME, YOUR HONOURThe judiciary needs a paradigm shift in its functioning to adapt swiftly to the l ockdown and post-lockdown

30

4 LETTERS 8 POLIGLOT 52 AUDI 554 BOOKS56 LA DOLCE VITA58 DIARY

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Millennial Travel

THE GREAT DEBATE

DARK TOURISM SOMEWHERE ELSE?

SANYA

Top DestinationsTravel StyleHot TipsCool Gear

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RAKHIGARHI RIDDLE WHAT DOES THE DNA TELL US?

DeepFake

SEEING is not

BELIEVING

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September 27, 2019 #50

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FOR WOMEN

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पुडलस डिरासत और जेलों

में बढ़ते मौतों के आंकड़े,

पुडलस यातिा के डवरुद्ध

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S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 9 , ` 5 0

o u t l o o k m o n e y . c o m

8 904150 800027 90

SubScriber copy not for reSale

ReveRse MoRtgage LoansaMRaPaLI eFFeCtDay tRaDIng

Insurance

specIalThe firsT OuTlOOk MOney - POlicyBazaar insurance ranking pg 32

The insurance sector enacts strict laws to curb

the frauds menace

INDIA’S NO.1

TRAVEL MAGAZINE

www.outlooktraveller.com

8 904150 800003 90 ST E V E G U E R DAT n R AG H U R A I n K E N I LWO RT H n I S R A E L

September 2019 • `100

Decoding the secrets of

Millennial Travel

THE GREAT DEBATE

DARK TOURISM SOMEWHERE ELSE?

SANYA

Top DestinationsTravel StyleHot TipsCool Gear

Fake news got more worrisome. There is now technology to morph

videos and audio to make them real. RNI NO. 7044/1961

8 904150 800010 73

www.outlookindia.com September 23, 2019 Rs 60

RAKHIGARHI RIDDLE WHAT DOES THE DNA TELL US?

DeepFake

SEEING is not BELIEVING

RNI NO. DELENG/2006/16808

OUTLOOK BUSINESS | INDIA'S BEST WORKPLACES FOR WOMEN | SEPTEMBER 27, 2019 | T50

September 27, 2019 #50

Subscription Copy Not For Resale BIG BANKS—GOOD OR BAD?—see page 72

8 904150 800041 02

Outlook Business — Great Place to Work bring you the second annual listing of top workplaces for women —see page 41

Work from home options are great for women. Are Indian companies up to it? —see page 30

INDIA'S BEST WORKPLACES

FOR WOMEN

Vol14-Issue-20, September 27, 2019.indd 1 09/09/19 9:55 pm

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आउटलुक-आइसीएआरई इंडिया यूडिवडससिटी रैंडकंग 2019

पुडलस डिरासत और जेलों

में बढ़ते मौतों के आंकड़े,

पुडलस यातिा के डवरुद्ध

कािूि वक्त की मांग

RNI NO. DELHIN/2009/26981; Total pages:84; KA/BGGPO/2504/06-08; POSTAL REGD NO. DL-SW-01/4148/17-19 ; POSTED AT NDPSO WPP NO. U (SW)-34/2017-19 ; Published on July 29, 2019

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2 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

T R I B H U V A N T I W A R I

0 0 OUTLOOK | MAY 4 , 2020

Sister SaviourNAINITALVijay Singh Adhikari: Your cover story Thank You, Nurse (May 4) is heart-wrenching. It speaks volumes of nurses’ and other paramedics’ hard work and sincerity. One such instance of extraordinary resilience emerged during the Crimean War of 1854, when soldiers dying of infection rather than war injuries were given a new lease of life by the lady with the lamp, Florence Nightingale. As she says, “The greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.” The genesis of nurs-ing can be traced to that transformative event, which changed the contours of medical care. She emerged as a beacon of hope and drastically reduced the number of deaths. In the present catastrophe too, this noble profession has emerged as our main line of defence against the virus. It is said that doctors are next to god. However, nurses too are no less than god when it comes to saving precious lives. Social inse-curity with low pay, long working hours

without adequate rest, highly skewed nurse-patient ratio and inhospitable working conditions are issues that need urgent attention.

NEW DELHISangeeta Kampani: I am grateful for your cover story on nurses. Indeed, nurses get a raw deal even though they stand in the direct line of fire. I have composed a piece dedi-cated to these brave hearts.

Salaam Sisters!Your careAlways extraordinaire.Our neglectAlways gross and severe.

Today, as the grim reaper Holds us to ransom once again,We seek you more than everDiseased, desperate, defenceless.

As you go about, steadfast like usual,Healing not a few But an entire society’s pustules.Our immense gratitude to all you nurses,A collective appreciation from the heartFor holding us together For not letting us fall apart.

Thank you for your dedication,Thank you for being with us Even in our isolation.

F E E D B A C K › O U T L O O K @ O U T L O O K I N D I A . C O ML E T T E R S T

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4 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

FROM THE Daak Room

Boston-based RR Auction has invited bids for this letter by Mahatma Gandhi. The auction concludes on May 13 and is expected to fetch $15,000. The letter pertains to the All India Untouchability League, which he founded in 1932. It was later known as Harijan Sevak Sangh. The group helped lower castes access public spaces such as temples and wells.

Experts weigh in on how Covid-19 will impact campus placements

Prof. Manikrao SalunkheVice Chancellor, Bharati Vidyapeeth

(Deemed to be University), Pune and President, Association of Indian

Universities (AIU)R P Yadav

Chairman & Managing Director Genius Consultant Ltd

#indianeducationconclave

Join us onMay 3, 2020, (Sunday) 6:00 P.M.

TO REGISTER, ClICk hERE https://bit.ly/2W7BujI

Amitabh Jhingan Partner and National

Leader – Education practice, EY Parthenon

Ramananda Sengupta Consultant Editior, Outlook

0 0 OUTLOOK | MAY 4 , 2020

F E E D B A C K › O U T L O O K @ O U T L O O K I N D I A . C O ML E T T E R S

6 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

For The PeopleMARUTHANCODEDavid Milton: This refers to Trauma In The Age Of The Virus (April 20). While the lockdown was needed to avoid mass deaths, its plan-ning was woefully inade-quate. It was a trial by fire in which the flames of hun-ger and anxiety consumed the most vulnerable sec-tions of society. While the rich can afford to withstand the rigours of a prolonged lockdown, the poor cannot. The central and state gov-ernments failed to prepare for human behaviour in desperate situations and anticipate the movement of migrants. Stories of people riding or walking long dis-tances to reach home abound. But this is not the time for blame games—both the central and state gov-

ernments must take joint action to mitigate migrants’ misery. It is their job to cre-ate conditions for everyone to abide by the lockdown. They must single-mindedly pool and deploy resources towards this end.

GUWAHATID. Bhutia: Citizens are at

the centre of a democratic set-up. It is most appropri-ately stated in the Preamble to the Constitution, which starts with “We, the people of India...”. Though there are multiple pillars in this set-up, like the legislature, judiciary and executive, these are subject to the will of citizens. During the lock-

down as well, people’s safety should be a priority. While the police are expected to maintain law and order, the present crisis can hardly be considered a law and order issue. The need of the hour is commu-nity policing rather than high-handedness and baton-wielding.

JINDMahendra Singh: This refers to your cover story Is My Job Safe?. I wonder how India will emerge from the lockdown. Unemployment is a big problem. According to the World Bank, 76 per cent of the population of India is in vulnerable employment. The pandemic is affecting sectors like tour-ism, hospitality, transport and entertainment, but the worst-affected is the unor-ganised sector. Regardless, the way India has dealt with this crisis is appreciable. Albert Einstein rightly said that in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. I hope India will fight against unemployment after this turmoil.

GOAAires Rodrigues: This refers to your cover story Corona Warriors (March 30). India needs enhanced primary healthcare ser-vices and more general

practitioners aware of the health and nutrition needs of their community. The Cuban model provides a good example of how the needs of everyone, includ-ing the poorest, can be

met. Cuba has many doc-tors—some are even sent to serve in foreign coun-tries. Recently, they went to Italy to assist the healthcare system over-whelmed by COVID-19. Medicine is a calling, not a profession. Young people ought to know that health-care involves long hours with hard work. Perhaps, COVID-19 is a blessing in disguise for it will filter out those who are fearful and motivated by self-interest or grandiosity. Good doctors understand responsibility and practice accountability. As Hippocrates said, “Where the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love for humanity”.

P T I

WARNING !!! AGAIN A DEADLY CRASH HAS STARTED IN INDIAN STOCK MARKET 2020. NIFTY IS GOING TO TOUCH MINIMUM 5000 LEVEL SOON.

Again a deadly crash has started in Indian Stock Market 2020. In this big crash NIFTY will fall and reach minimum 5000 level. Once NIFTY reaches 5000 level, the fall will

be calculated 46% fall from the recent level. This is going to be the second biggest fall after 2008 crash.

Recently in the month of march 2020 NIFTY got corrected nearly 40% from life high which is continuing with the above mentioned crash. Therefore investors and traders needs to be very careful to deal with the crash since it will impact investors and traders wealth severely said by the RESEARCH ANALYST Mr. LAKSHMI NARAYANAN SUNDARAM.

LAKSHMI NARAYANAN SUNDARAM RESEARCH ANALYST (SEBI CERTIFIED).

8 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

POLIGLOTM I X E D S H O T S

Fresh Catch This fish market in Kochi is a short walk down the pier

S N A P S H O T

Puneet Nicholas Yadav

WHEN Shivraj Singh Chouhan called on Kamal Nath after suc-

ceeding the latter as Madhya Pradesh chief minister on March 23, the Con-gress stalwart reportedly had a pithy message for him: “Now you have my chair but also my headache”. The headache, a close aide of Nath tells Outlook, was a reference to the for-mer CM’s bête noire, Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose rebellion had trig-gered the Congress government’s fall and paved the BJP’s return to power.

For a month since, Chouhan bat-tled the challenge of running the state while the coronavirus toll steadily rose across MP. His inability to install a council of ministers when he assumed office only added to his problems. On April 21, days after he gained infamy of being India’s long-est serving CM without a council of ministers, Chouhan formed a five-member cabinet.

Having run MP as its CM for over 12 years in the past, Chouhan perhaps has some tricks up his sleeve to navi-gate the current barrage of criticism against his handling of the coronavi-rus pandemic. But, if the composition of his cabinet is any indicator, Chou-han needs a crash course in managing the headache Nath had warned him about. The biggest losers in the recent cabinet formation exercise were Scin-dia and his brigade of 22 paratroopers who had deserted the Congress last month. The cabinet colleagues chosen by Chouhan are old BJP stalwarts Narottam Mishra, Kamal Patel,

Meena Singh and Scindia loyalists Govind Singh Rajput and Tulsi Silavat.

Scindia, say sources, wanted Silavat, Rajput, Pradyuman Singh, Imarti Devi, Mahendra Sisodia and Prabhu-ram Chaudhary—all cabinet ministers in the Nath government—to be given ministerial roles in the first round of cabinet formation. Chouhan nixed the idea. BJP insiders in the state insist that the party’s leadership has sent a clear message to Scindia by not only ignoring his demand to accommodate his six loyalists immediately but also ensuring that the two who became ministers weren’t from his political citadel of Gwalior-Chambal.

Silavat and Rajput belong to the state’s Malwa and Bundelkhand regions respectively. The Gwalior divi-sion is being represented currently in the cabinet by Mishra who has also got the home and health portfolios. Sila-vat, who was health minister in the Nath government, has been down-graded as water resources minister. Rajput was given the food and civil supplies portfolio as opposed to the plum revenue ministry he helmed under Nath.

“By not accommodating his loy-alists from the Gwalior-Chambal region, the BJP has indicated to Scindia that he will not have a free run… He must earn his place in the party by ensuring that 16 vacant seats in the assembly from the Gwali-or-Chambal division are won by BJP in the bypolls,” a BJP leader says.

For now, Scindia will have to wait to extract his pound of flesh while Chouhan figures out how to keep the new party satrap under check. O

MP

Got An Aspirin? The J&K Police has slapped the

Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on Kashmir-based journalists Masrat Zahra, Peerzada Ashiq and Gowhar Geelani, triggering condemnation from media and human rights bodies across the world. Geelani tells Naseer Ganai that such moves may “either silence us or make more people speak out”. Excerpts from the interview:

How you see the use of UAPA against you and other journalists?➞ These FIRs are not meant to attack individuals, but to silence Kashmiri voices, to stifle free speech and the insti-tution of journalism here. The process itself is the punishment. It is harass-ment, intimidation and an attack on our dignity. The aim is to legitimise only one narrative that suits the present dispen-sation. Such steps may either create fear in everyone who has an opinion or encourage more people to speak out as it is now about everyone. When you are being watched, you remain more focused on your safety than your work. But intimidating tactics from any quar-ter won’t cow me down. All I have are words. Let me assure one and all that journalism and words will stay, censor-

ship won’t. I think others too wouldn’t remain silent.

The media fraternity came out in your support….➞ Such draconian meas-ures take a psychological

toll on our families and friends, but they also do

understand the larger design—that it is Big Brother trying

to instil fear and criminalise the middle ground. Are we moving towards a future where everything belongs to the State and everyone is in chains? It concerns everyone who believes in equality, free speech and the principles of justice. O

‘Words will live. Censorship won’t.’

INTERVIEW

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 9

POLIGLOT

brevis

Theatre actress Usha Ganguly, 75, died of a cardiac arrest in Calcutta. She had founded the Rangakarmee group in 1976, known for productions like Rudali and Antaryatra.

Malayalam actor Ravi Vallathol, son of drama legend T.N. Gopinathan Nair, died at the age of 67. Nephew of poet V.N. Menon, he acted in over 100 movies and TV serials.

Sanjay Kothari has taken oath as India’s new CVC. He was selected with majority votes, though the Congress had objected to his selection.

Football legend Chuni Goswami, 82, has died of multi-organ failure in Calcutta. Captain of the 1962 Asiad gold winning team, he played 50 interna-tionals for India.

Actor Rishi Kapoor has died in hospital after a long battle with cancer. He was 67. He debuted in a lead role in Bobby (1973) and his last release was The Body in 2019.

Walking the Tight RopeG.C. Shekhar in Chennai

CIRCUS: along with memories of unalloyed childhood happiness and wonderment, the word

conjures up a world of barely-there make-believe, gaudy paint, tinny music, betasselled costumes of trapeze artistes, the sudden burst of wild animal smell—all so tangibly lifelike for its being rough to the touch. Then there are the tear-stained characters smiling under the arclights—so beloved of writers, artists and filmmakers. It has been driven to near-extinction for long, as entertainment moved from the old telly to virtual reality wearables. Now, the few barely surviving has been dealt a fatal blow by the lockdown. Like the 100-year-old Great Bombay Circus now touring Tamil Nadu.

The circus had pitched tent at Mannargudi town of Thiruvarur district since February 27 and had been attract-ing a lukewarm response except during weekends. Since the March 26 lock-down, its performers have nothing to do. With no revenue, performers and ani-mals faced starvation till locals decided to step in. The state food minister R. Kamaraj led by example—arranging pro-

T A M I L N A D U

visions for performers and instructed the animal husbandry department to give fodder for the animals that include camels and horses. Local grocers pitch in too whenever the circus manager alerts them about rations running low.

“Ever since the clampdown on per-forming animals, big cats, elephants and monkeys cannot be part of any cir-cus in India. We only have a couple of camels, four horses plus a few macaws and dogs. There is a 134-strong staff, including performers and mainte-nance staff from different states eager to return to their homes as there’s no income,” says manager M. Ramesh. While local performers were paid Rs. 1,200 a day, those from Ethiopia and Ukraine (who returned home after the Chennai leg was truncated) earned Rs1,800 a day. “We need at least

Rs 25,000 a day to feed the troupe and animals and Rs 5,000 to buy diesel for the generator. True, we are getting three meals a day thanks to locals and volunteer groups. But since workers are unable to send money back home the mood is one of despondency,” Ramesh adds.

Even though the few surviving Indian circuses have jointly appealed to PM Modi for a loan to tide over this existential crisis, the bleakness extends into future prospects—post lockdown, it is unlikely that audiences would be allowed to assemble. Forlorn employees hope the state government would help them get back once trains start running. The Great Bombay Circus was founded in 1920. In its hundredth year, their Big Top could be consigned to history. O

Food items being given to the circus stranded in Chennai

1 0 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

POLIGLOT

MixedShotsSULTANS OF SWING CAN’T LICK BALLS

BOWLERS once spat on their balls to lick their opponents, but in a world wracked by COVID-19,

that’s too dangerous. The International Cricket Council has taken note of the increased risk of infection with the ‘spit and polish’ method to bowl a reverse

swing. “If we don’t use saliva, how will we shine the ball?” asks fast-bowler

Bhuvneshwar Kumar. “Then we will be hit and people will say we are not bowling well.” So

the council is considering legalising ball-tampering with shoe polish, petroleum jelly and moisturiser once matches resume. We hope these more wholesome alternatives will keep the ball rolling. O

DOES the case of a 33-year-old Dimapur-based trader testing positive for coronavirus belong to Assam or

Nagaland? Both and neither. Nagaland claims it is free of COVID-19—the state’s health secretary explains that the patient has been listed in Assam’s case tally as he was diagnosed in Guwahati. But Assam’s updates do not account for the man either, leaving him in a stateless limbo. “If Nagaland wants to keep its slate clean, we cannot do anything about it,” says an Assam health official. Considering how Assam refuses to acknowledge the patient, they are indeed not doing anything about it. O

DHAK DHAK CORONA LAGA

“HOW are Hindu festivals celebrat-ed in Pakistan?”

This query of a young man from Gurdaspur district in Punjab

posed to a woman in Karachi soon blossomed into a tale of love across

borders. They started talking on Facebook in September and by November, Amit Sharma had proposed to Summan RantiLal. Reader, she said yes, but as they say, the course of true love never runs smooth. First, there was the long-distance courtship, then Amit had to convince his family. All eventually panned out well and the wedding was scheduled for June, until the pandemic put a spanner in their plans. But Amit and Summan are willing to wait—lovesickness, we hear, is not as fatal as COVID-19. O

BORED TO DEATH?

N OW that international travel is shut, what could be the biggest risk factor for contracting COVID-19? Bore-dom, perhaps. A truck driver in Vijayawada played

cards with his friends to kill time, but time was not the only thing he ended up killing—the games resulted in him spreading the disease to 24 people in one locality. Another truck driver’s ennui resulted in 15 people getting the infection in the Krishna Lanka neighbourhood after cards and tambola sessions.

Meanwhile, in Punjab, the police caught a man taking his nephew for tuitions. The man tried to hide why he was out, but the five-year-old spilled the beans

and even took the police to the tutor’s house, presumably to get some reprieve from classes till the end of the lockdown. O

BAD BOA BOYS

THE lockdown might provide the perfect cover for shady dealings, but turns out that it is hard to outsmart the Karnataka police. Two boys in Bangalore were masquerading as delivery boys to sell two sand boa snakes for Rs 50 lakh.

The ‘two-headed’ snakes (their tail and head look alike) are quite valuable in the international market as there are several supersti-tions associated with them—people believe they secrete ‘anti-age-ing chemicals’, bring prosperity and are useful for black magic! The snakes, however, did not bring any prosperity to the boys, who were promptly arrested. But snakes are not the only creatures people are smuggling in Karnataka. A teenager in Mangalore tried to smuggle his friend into his apartment in a suitcase because he was lonely! O

I L L U S T R A T I O N S : S A A H I L , T E X T B Y S A A D A H M E D A N D A L K A G U P T A

SCHRODINGER’S PATIENT

Watch it on

BUSINESS/MARKET JITTERS

Yagnesh Kansara in Mumbai

“Abull market is when you get a stock tip from your barber…a bear market is

when you get a haircut from your fund manager.” Thus tweeted corporate leader Lloyd Mathias in a particularly jocular vein on April 20. Little did he foresee the prescience of his witti-cism. Three days later, the lockdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic marked its first casualties in the Indian financial market. The closure of six debt schemes by the Franklin Templeton (FT) Mutual Fund has resulted in eroding the confidence of investors to a large extent and has created a sort of crisis of confidence in the market. These six debt schemes together have Assets

The collapse of six Franklin Templeton mutual funds underlines the volatility of credit risk funds in times of economic shock. It behoves investors to be more cautious and more patient.

Front-End LeaksUnder Management (AUM) worth over Rs 28,000 crore.

Through a notice dated April 23, 2020, FT MF announced its decision to wind up six of its schemes—Franklin India Low Duration Fund, Franklin India Ultra Short Bond Fund, Franklin India Short Term Income Plan, Franklin India Credit Risk Fund, Franklin India Dynamic Accrual Fund and Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund.

As per the fund house, “There has

been a dramatic and sustained fall in liquidity in certain segments of the corporate bonds market on account of the COVID-19 crisis and the resultant lockdown of the Indian economy which was necessary to address the same (sic). At the same time, mutual funds, especially in the fixed income segment, are facing continuous and heightened redemptions.”

These funds have been facing signifi-cant redemption pressure, which intensified in the months of March and April, witnessing an estimated net outflow of Rs 9,148 crore in March alone. Franklin Templeton says that in this scenario, this is the best possible way to safeguard the interest of inves-tors and is the only viable means to secure an orderly realisation of port-folio assets.

Hence from April 24, 2020, the trus-

The closed MFs have been facing great

redemption pressure, with net outflow of

Rs 9,148 cr in March.

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 1 3

tee and the asset manage-ment company (AMC) have: (a) ceased to carry on any business activity in respect of the schemes; (b) ceased to create or cancel units in the schemes; (c) ceased to issue or redeem units in the schemes.

The impact of the furore was instant: The RBI on April 27 announced a special liquidity facility of Rs 50,000 crore for mutual funds in the wake of the winding up of the six debt funds by Franklin Templeton. Banks can avail of the 90-day funds from the RBI’s repo window and use it to lend exclusively to mutual funds or purchase investment grade corporate papers held by MFs. The scheme will be available from April 27 till May 11. This is third instance when the cen-tral bank has opened a special window for MFs.

Joseph Thomas, head of research, Emkay Wealth Management, says, “The ero-sion in investor confidence usually results in more redemptions and may lead to liquidity problems for the mutual fund industry, when many of them already have negative cash in debt funds. So, more than a crisis of liquidity, it is a crisis of confidence.” Though the RBI may have announced opening of a special window to help debt MFs to tide over liquidity prob-lems, the after-effects of the low-rated credit risk fund portfolios may haunt mutual funds for some more time to come because of the economic slow-down and the resultant sluggishness in economic activity emanating from the pandemic, Thomas adds.

Amit Singh, Head, Investica, the online MF platform powered by Choice Broking, says, “The FT MF development has come as a shock to the entire mutual fund fraternity. This is clearly a casualty of COVID-19. Debt markets have been facing a lot of liquidity issues over the last month even in the high-rated papers. In low- rated credit papers, liquidity pressure

was higher. But at the same time, this does not impact the entire universe of debt mutual funds. Funds with high-quality papers have seen steady growth during this period. RBI is also doing its bit to maintain enough liquidity in the debt markets. Our recommenda-tion to investors is to stick to debt funds which invest only in high-rated debt papers. These are uncertain times and financial advisors can help you navigate through this period”.

In situations like this, any portfolio with exposure to credit risk debt instruments have risk of liquidity and will be adversely impacted. Further, debt funds are domi-nated by corporates and high net-worth individuals (HNI) from the investment side and most corporates have liquid-ity issues due to the lock-down and are therefore aggressively redeeming debt MFs to meet cash requirements.

Retail Investors should be prudent while investing in debt funds and should always look only for the quality of the portfolio and should completely ignore past per-formance, big names and big brands while making invest-ments, Singh says.

“Investors affected by the current crisis have no choice, but to wait so that the liquidity gets back to the lower end of the system as and when the lockdown is over and economic activi-ties restart. Only then the AMC will pay back the realisable money,” says Omkeshwar Singh, head, RankMF, Samco Securities.

FT has always maintained its image of managing low-credit high-yield debt funds. Many retail investors opted for these funds to get higher returns. Now that these schemes have shut down, existing investors cannot do any transaction in these schemes. At the same time, no expense ratios will be charged for these funds. Investors will get redemptions in the future when the underlying bonds

The RBI announced a special liquidity facility of Rs 50,000 cr for MFs.

Banks can use it to lend it to the MFs.

Mutually InquisitiveWhat just happened to Franklin Templeton’s

yield-oriented credit funds?

Franklin Templeton announced the winding

down of six of its debt funds (which had credit

risk)—Franklin Low Duration, Franklin Dynamic

Accrual, Franklin Credit Risk Fund, Franklin Short

Term Income, Franklin Ultra Short Bond Fund,

and Franklin Income Opps Fund —with immediate

effect.

What happens to our investments? Can we

withdraw our money?

This is similar to a lockdown. These schemes will

not allow any further transactions, purchases

or redemptions. The entire scheme becomes a

segregated portfolio. These six schemes in total

have an AUM (assets under management) of over

Rs 28,000 crore. This entire AUM is now stuck.

Investors like you cannot redeem their respective

investments. Simply put, you cannot withdraw

any money right away.

Does this mean the money is gone with the

closure of these schemes?

Not at all. The closed schemes will work like

a segregated portfolio—the day they get any

interest or maturity from any of the holdings it will

distributed to all on proportionate basis.

Will we get our money back soon?

As and when the underlying portfolio instruments

mature or the scheme receives the money back

they will pay it back to investors.


1 4 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

mature or when they pay interest. Hence, existing investors can expect partial amount credits in their accounts if there are investments in any of these six schemes.

Investors’ confidence towards credit risk funds was never high but, coupled with the uncertainty spawned by the lockdown as to the full resumption of the economy, that weak conviction dwindled further. Investors started redeeming in force, FT had to liquidate their holdings and eventually the scheme was left with illiquid, low- rated and thinly-traded papers.

Explains Bhavesh D. Damania, founder and chief caretaker, Wealthcare Investments: “The situa-tion doesn’t seem to be the same with other fund houses and their schemes. Most large players have already cleansed their books since default of IL&FS, DHFL, Zee etc. So I do not fore-see similar run on other AMC’s credit risk funds. Even if they face huge redemption pressure like FT, most have already increased allocation to AAA, G-Sec and raised cash levels to combat such a situation. I feel now is the time to consider credit risk funds in a staggered manner. Volatility will be very high in credit risk funds and one should live

with that. Existing investors should examine their portfolio and take action. Many debt fund categories are safer and stable, which can be considered in case one is fully risk averse”.

Indubitably, the development has shaken up the debt mutual fund indus-try. Coming on the heels of a series of NAV write-downs/segregation by vari-ous fund houses due to downgrades/defaults by investee companies, this will not do any good for the risk-on sentiments of retail and HNI investors. The FT episode once again highlights the weakness in the secondary debt

markets in India as they tend to get illiquid by small bouts of micro and macro negative news.

Deepak Jasani, head of research, HDFC Securities opines, “Despite the categorisation by SEBI, a lot of debt schemes take on risks that are not reflected in their scheme risk-o-meter or their category names. Fund managers with a view to generate higher return tend to take higher risks in the portion of other investments permitted in even safe, low-risk categories. Investors would also do well to desist from chasing just returns without taking into account the risk taken by the respective schemes. AMFI (Association of Mutual funds in India) should educate investors on how to assess this risk. On a higher level, faster legal resolutions/recoveries will help in development of buying out of stressed assets and improving the depth and liquidity in secondary debt markets”.

With the RBI’s swift action to forestall any turbulence, there is hope that this is a one-off case, though the economic wheels are yet to roll out of this difficult phase. A sharp liquidity crunch can only be remedied by the solid, guttural roar of running engines. O

Frankly, Temptation Print ads by FT during better days.

“Investors shouldn’t chase returns

disregarding the risk.”DEEPAK JASANI

HDFC Securities


OutlOOk Wellbeing

Join us onMay 1, 2020 (Friday), time: 6 pm

Vicky RatnaniCelebrity Chef

lachmi Deb RoyAssistant Editor, Outlook magazine

With&

1 6 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

LOCKDOWN/MICROFINANCE

Lola Nayar and Jyotika Sood

THE television set plays the news on mute at a microfinance executive’s home in Noida. A

prime-time panel of experts is having a spirited debate about an exit strategy—how to ease coronavirus restrictions, find a way out of the pandemic, and revive the battered economy. The executive watches silently, without blinking, eyes glued to the ticker scroll running at the bottom of the screen. The branch manager of a microfinance company and his field officer were assaulted and arrested in Sarangarh district of Chhattisgarh for breaching stay-at-home orders. They were trying to recommence field operations of lending and collection of dues. Another such assault was reported from West Bengal. At the heart of any revival plan is the nation’s microfinance market, the largest in the world, catering to more

Reviving microfinancing activity is key to economic recovery

than 120 million homes that have no access to financial services. Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and the farm sector are the biggest beneficiaries of the microfinance institutions (MFI). And these sectors have clearly suffered a one-two punch and cannot afford any missteps. But instructions from the Centre and states to let MFIs resume limited operations aren’t clearly percolating down to local administrations. The Chhattisgarh and Bengal cases are grim reminders.

As the uncertainty over the lockdown extending beyond May 3, raising fears of more wage, job and business losses, the RBI recently offered a ray of hope with its second tranche of liquidity and regu-latory measures. The package offers a

special refinancing facility of Rs 50,000 crore to NABARD, SIDBI and NHB. This raised optimism for businesses and agri-culturists seeking funds. But will that be enough for thousands of MSMEs, local businesses and the agriculture sector to restart operations after shuttering their doors for more than 40 days?

Incomes have dried up and people are dipping into their savings to remain afloat. The MFIs are one of the intended beneficiaries of the RBI’s move with 10 per cent of the targeted long-term repo operations funds raised by banks ear-marked for them. This is expected to help a cross-section of businesses and individuals lacking access to banks. However, P. Satish, executive director of Sa-dhan, an umbrella organisation of MFIs, is unhappy that the RBI largesse will not benefit a large number of their members who serve the most deprived. “As the RBI has made investment grade paper floated by MFIs a condition to avail the earmarked funds, it will benefit only the top half a dozen MFIs that fulfil the criteria of having investment grade rating,” says Satish. That means the bulk of MFIs will be excluded. Of the 145 MFIs that are Sa-dhan members, about

Where Credit Is Due

As the MSMEs, self-employed, casual labour etc would have

drawn heavily from savings due to lockdown,

MFI role is critical now.

P H O T O G R A P H S : P T I

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 1 7

dependent on what schedule a bor-rower adopts—daily, weekly or monthly. The EMI usually ranges from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 with repayment time of one to two years, explains Rakesh Kumar, executive director and CEO, Light Micro Finance Pvt Ltd. “The biggest chal-lenge is that the collection cannot be done digitally, unlike in urban India,” says Kumar. In rural India, collection by MFIs is still done door to door through agents, which has stopped due to the lockdown. “Some MFIs managed to collect their March installment, but not April onwards,” he adds.

Ramesh Arunachalam, an interna-tional development finance expert, says the RBI should appoint a broad-based special national committee with executive powers, comprising civil society, independent domain experts and other stakeholders, to monitor and evaluate the real-time effectiveness of its various instru-ments and measures. “This will help provide on-course corrections as well as enhance the effectiveness of implementation of various meas-ures, especially by identifying and removing bottlenecks in real time,” says Arunachalam, who also stresses the need for making working capital and term loans available to MSMEs at reduced interest rates, with the RBI rate cuts being passed on fully.

In the normal course, the first quar-ter of the year used to see less uptake of credit, except in the case of banks

predominantly lending to the agricul-ture sector. Khariff lending used to start in the last week of May or the first week of June, while non-agriculture lending would pick up only after July. But due to the lockdown impact, demand for loans from the unorganised and informal sec-tor, non-agricultural sector, animal hus-bandry and other farm-related sectors is expected to pick up sooner this year.

Data collected by Sa-dhan shows credit demand during the lockdown period was almost 90 per cent lower than what is normal in March. During the first part of April, apart from digital transactions, credit off-take was less than 10 per cent of what is normal. This is at a time when harvest activi-ties are in full swing and work for the next season’s sowing begins. O

95 have an asset size of Rs 200 crore or below, but they cater to nearly 3 million clients.

“Pooling of assets across a range of investment grades will be required so that a wide set of institutions can avail of this fund,” says Mathew Titus, managing partner at Market and EcoSystem Advisory and an MFI expert. Encouraged, however, by the RBI governor’s statement that “he will do whatever it takes” to push credit off-take and boost eco-nomic growth, Titus is hopeful that more will be done to help the MFI sector, which fulfils many needs, including one of the most critical—consumption smoothening.

According to KPMG in India analy-sis, this industry has evolved over the past two decades and reached over 25 per cent penetration level in the total addressable market in 2019. Microfinance lenders aim to provide easy access to formal credit to cus-tomers who need it the most and would not typically be eligible for bank credit. A vast majority of bor-rowers are women just above the poverty line and striving to improve their household’s living conditions. The critical importance of MFIs in uplifting the financially excluded “is evident from their contribution to improving financial inclusion, par-ticularly in semi-urban and rural locations,” states a recent KPMG report, which also points out that the microfinance loan portfolio (35 per cent) is the highest in eastern and northeastern India. MFIs are also the largest contributor of new-to-credit cus-tomers among banks, SFBs and NBFCs.

Satish points out that people in some rural areas tend to depend on MFIs to get funds due to lack of access to banks. The need for MFIs is critical at this juncture as MSMEs, self-employed, casual labour and people engaged in agriculture-related activities would have drawn heavily from their savings due to the impact of lockdown.

Harsh Shrivastava, CEO, MicroFinance Institutions Network, hopes banks will pass on the benefits of lower interest rates to MFIs so they can pass it on to their borrowers. But he is also apprehensive because the moratorium of three months announced by the RBI was not

MONEY MATTERSMFI operations have been frozen since mid-March

with less than 10 per cent of the normal lending and payment collection happening online..

* after the dip due to demonetisation ** estimated growth

Source: Sa-dhan

Out of 175 MFIs that report their data, just 25 have portfolio of over Rs 500 crore

Midsize and small MFIs cater to around 3 million borrowers

Demand for MFIs can be gauged by their growth

2017-18*

2018-19

52%33% 25-

30%

2019-20**

extended by some banks to MFIs. “We have been requesting all banks to sup-port the industry at this critical time. It is only fair to pass on the benefits to MFIs as they have already committed to support their own BOP borrowers with the same,” says Shrivastava.

The high interest rates charged by many MFIs remain a concern. After the RBI stepped in a few years ago, the bigger MFIs have been charging around 18-19 per cent interest, while the small and medium size ones charge around 22-24 per cent. Veterans say this is due to the interest rates MFIs have to pay the banks and the cost of operations, including collection of interest and repayments.

For most MFIs, the ticket size is Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 and EMI is

LOCKDOWN/MICROFINANCE

Q What are the aims and objective of the NCDC?National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) is the foremost development financing institution for the cooperative sector. It has been set up under an Act of the Parliament in 1962. It provides assistance to almost all types of cooperative societies as per mandate given in the Act of the Parliament.

Activities of NCDC cover the complete value chain from “farm to shelf” including production, processing, marketing, storage, cold-chain, for agricultural and allied produce besides other inputs such as fertilizer, seeds banking etc. and other sectors such as energy, rural housing and forest produce. It also provides assistance for capacity building and upgradation of skills of personnel involved in the cooperatives.

NCDC functions under the over-arching principle of Sahakar-22 for a New India and for Doubling the Farmers Income. The benefits flowing from activities of cooperatives flow ultimately to the individual members, small and marginal farmers.

Beginning with a meagre disbursement of Rs.2.36 crore in 1963, the year of its formation, NCDC disbursed Rs.27699 crore in 2019-20 and the cumulative release as on 31.03.2020 stood at Rs.152590 crore most of which has taken place in the last six years accounting for 70% of total disbursements.

Q What are the criteria for the NCDC assistance?NCDC assistance is geared towards development of cooperatives based on viable business plans. The assistance can be short or long term in the form of investment loans for infrastructure, margin money, working capital and capacity development. Well laid out and transparent eligibility norms determine sanction of loans to cooperatives either through direct funding route or through the State Governments. Quantum of assistance depends on viable business plans. There is no minimum and maximum limit for assistance.

Q How can one apply for the assistance?A prospective applicant cooperative society can apply to any of the 18 regional offices of NCDC spread across the country or to the head office. The details of NCDC schemes and pattern of assistance, eligibility norms, general criteria for availing NCDC funding, Common Application Form etc. are available on NCDC website www.ncdc.in

Q How NCDC is promoting the primary level cooperative?Aligned with Hon’ble Prime Minister’s call for a New India, mission mode activities titled SAHAKAR-22 have been launched by NCDC for cooperatives for achieving the goal of doubling the farmers income. The focus is on primary cooperatives which play a critical role in the economy of the country. In the ongoing pandemic era and the years that would follow, primary cooperatives have to play a bigger role. NCDC has embarked upon an interim target of reaching out and nurturing 1 million

members in 5000 primary societies a year, targeting 5 million primary cooperative society members in the coming years. NCDC officials have already visited in person, 4911 primary cooperatives to assess their needs, aspirations and capacities. Some of the newly launched schemes of NCDC such as YUVA SAHAKAR, similar to Start Ups in the corporate world, are focused on primary cooperatives. Under the stewardship of NCDC, Co-operative Sector Exports Promotion Council (COOPEXCIL) has been recently set up with the membership of different stakeholders to give a boost to exports by cooperatives.

Q What kind of steps is taking NCDC to promote the training for farmers and agri industries?NCDC has a dedicated network of capacity development infrastructure under its institution, the Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research and Development (LINAC) headquartered at Gurugram, Haryana. LINAC along with its six regional training centres spread across the country, designs and delivers need-based programmes for key functionaries of cooperatives. A highlight of such capacity development programmes has been the focus on farmers, fishermen/women, dairy sector, livestock sector, value chain based processing etc.. LINAC has covered about 25000 persons in 900 programmes so far. In the

pandemic period, LINAC has been conducting online video based programmes for cooperatives and NCDC personnel.

Q How much loan has been disbursed by NCDC in 2019-20 and what are the future targets?Beginning with a meagre disbursement of Rs.2.36 crore in 1963, the year of its formation, NCDC disbursed around Rs. 27700 crore in FY 2019-20. The cumulative disbursement by NCDC since its formation, is around Rs.152600 crore at the close of FY 2019-20. During the last six years about 70% of the cumulative disbursements, have taken place. NCDC aims to play a key role in the contribution to the economy by assisting the cooperatives.

Q Bad Debts are posing big threat to banks but NCDC has a different story, how NCDC has managed their loan?NCDC has a ZERO NET NPA status. It is an ISO 9001:2015 certified organization. We adopt meticulous, stringent, needs appropriate and transparent processes for our appraisals, sanctions, disbursals, monitoring and evaluation of projects. Working closely with the cooperatives with a human touch has been the guiding philosophy of NCDC. We initiate timely corrective action for laggard projects. We have a multipronged mechanism for recovery of overdues. Our recovery rate is above 98%.

Q What are the new schemes of NCDC for the young generation?NCDC has launched the YUVA SAHAKAR– Cooperative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme. The scheme aims at enabling Start-Ups in the cooperative sector covering all types of activities with liberal financing modes. The scheme aims at encouraging newly formed cooperative societies with new or innovative ideas. It is more liberal to cooperatives in Aspirational Districts identified by NITI Aayog, cooperatives with 100% women / SC / ST/ PwD members. Another new scheme, apart from the facilitative role through the Co-operative Sector Exports Promotion Council (COOPEXCIL) is SAHAKAR MITRA, targeted at professionally equipping educated youth to take up a career in cooperatives through paid internships.

SAHAKAR-22 FOR DOUBLING FARMERS INCOME

In line with the Prime Minister’s call for a New India, SAHAKAR-22 has been launched to double the farmers income. The focus is on primary cooperatives which have a bigger role to play in the post-pandemic era economic boost.

Interview with Shri Sundeep K Nayak, MD, NCDC

NCDC fuNCtioNs uNDer the over-arChiNg priNCiple of sahakar-22 for a New iNDia aND for DoubliNg the farmers iNCome. the beNefits flowiNg from aCtivities of Cooperatives flow ultimately to the iNDiviDual members, small aND margiNal farmers.

INTERVIEW

0 0 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

LOCKDOWN/JUDICIARY

Puneet Nicholas Yadav

AT 8.07 pm on April 23, Arnab Goswami, the editor and owner of Republic TV, moved a

petition in the Supreme Court demanding an urgent hearing to quash multiple FIRs filed against him by Congress leaders in various states. The FIRs had sought Goswami’s arrest on various grounds, including inciting communal hatred and making derogatory remarks against interim

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. The SC Registry scrutinised Goswami’s petition post-haste and listed it for hearing before a two-judge bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah at 10.30 the next morning.

With the SC having laid down stand-ard operating procedures for listing and hearing only extremely urgent cases through video conferencing dur-ing the ongoing lockdown, the alacrity with which Goswami’s petition was heard raised eyebrows. More so, since scores of petitioners who sought a

hearing by the SC much before Goswami continued to wait. Advocate Reepak Kansal filed a complaint with the secretary-general of the SC, alleg-ing “discrimination” and demanded corrective steps against the “pick and choose policy adopted by the registry”. Kansal tells Outlook, “I had to wait for 11 days to have my matter (regarding supply of rations to stranded migrant

The SC’s decision, and the high courts’ adoption, to hear matters of “extreme urgency” via virtual means face questions of transparency

and efficiency. And the lower courts lie helplessly inert.

A three-judge SC bench, headed by CJI S.A. Bobde, conducts video hearings

HigherResolution

LOCKDOWN/JUDICIARY

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 2 1

workers during the lockdown) heard but Goswami’s case was listed for hear-ing through a supplementary list released by the registry within an hour of his lawyers filing the plea.”

The past month has demonstrated afresh the misery of the poor as well as migrants who have borne the brunt of the devastating economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis. Add to this the Muslim community that continues to be blamed for the spread of the virus from the Tablighi Jamaat. If the lock-down-fired cauldron of injustices isn’t bubbling yet, there are other examples to consider too: police excesses against those who “defied the lockdown”; doc-tors who pleaded helplessly for PPEs; job losses and pay cuts in the private sector despite PM Narendra Modi’s request against it; government serv-ants pressured to contribute from their salaries to the PM-CARES fund. And Kashmiris, for whom the lock-down is only a continuation of curbs on civil liberties and the Anand Teltumbdes, Umar Khalids, Safoora Zardars, Masrat Zehras and Gowhar Jeelanis who must battle charges under the draconian UAPA.

THE role of the judiciary as parens patriae for each of these citizens cannot be emphasised

enough. Therefore, the arbiters of jus-tice must adapt swiftly to a lockdown and post-lockdown situation with greater swiftness than other pillars of democracy.

The SC was, in a sense, the first ins-titution that realised the need for a paradigm shift in its functioning. A day ahead of PM Modi’s announce-ment for a countrywide lockdown on March 24, Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde decided that the court would conduct hearings through video con-ferencing. The high courts soon fol-lowed suit, though a majority of district courts across the country continue to struggle.

With the lockdown extending beyond its initial deadline of April 14, the SC had, as on April 26, been opera-tional for 17 working days, heard 593

cases (203 of which were connected matters), pronounced 41 judgments, decided 84 review petitions and con-vened 87 benches. A laudable feat? Perhaps another data set would put this in perspective. As on March 1 this year, the total number of cases pending bef-ore the SC stood at 60, 649—over 550 of these are constitutional matters (inc-luding connected cases) listed before benches of strength varying between five and nine judges. This massive back-log is despite the fact that the SC today

has 34 sitting judges—its highest sanc-tioned strength in 70 years. Senior adv-ocate Menaka Guruswamy adds another dimension, explaining, “On an average Monday, about 70 cases are heard in each of the 14 SC courtrooms and so even without factoring in cases heard on other days, there are 980 cases heard on just one day”.

The wheels of justice are infamous for rolling ever so slowly in India. The massive backlog of cases across all lev-els of the judiciary—3,22,74,096 cases at the district and taluka level courts and another 48,16,011 cases across high courts are a testimony to this. It is, thus, surprising that CJI Bobde, in an interview to The Hindu on April 26, claimed that “there is much less pres-sure on the courts (during the lock-down) as very few actions are being taken…which normally generate liti-gation.” Given the staggering backlog, the assertion—by the CJI no less—of “much less pressure on the courts” sounds like a cruel joke on lakhs of waiting litigants. Indeed, of the 3.22 crore cases pending across district and taluka courts, over 27 lakh cases have been pending for over 10 years, while over 8.76 lakh fresh cases were filed last month alone. The sharp decline in matters being heard by the SC or high courts presently and the total shut-down in lower courts deprived of video conferencing infrastructure threatens to constrain access to jus-

“On an average Monday, about 70 cases are heard in each of the 14 SC courtrooms...980 on just one day.”

MENAKA GURUSWAMY Senior advocate

Ten Indonesians, arrested for attending the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi, are produced before a magistrate’s court in Bandra

LOCKDOWN/JUDICIARY

2 2 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

tice even further. This merits the question if the courts could have uti-lised this period of “less pressure” to dispose of cases pending only for pro-nouncement of judgment. Arghya Sengupta, research director, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, tells Outlook, “At the trial stage or in cases where evi dence has to be led, virtual hearings are not viable but courts could have utilised this period better by deliver-ing judgments in cases where all other stages have been completed… doing so would have reduced the backlog.”

Much of the present discourse over how the judiciary is coping under the lockdown has revolved around the promptness with which CJI Bobde dir-ected hearing of extremely urgent matters through video conferencing and the rapidity with which HCs repli-cated the move. Yet, every plaudit lav-ished upon virtual courtrooms has been qualified with the dire need to make the system more efficient, trans-parent and accessible. Indeed, in light of Goswami’s case, a major criticism has been about hearing only matters of “extreme urgency”. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal tells Outlook that the apex court must lay down “clear and precise processes for identifying urgent mat-ters so that court gossip over arbitrari-ness of listing matters is contained”.

Virtual hearings have also been plagued by technical snags. “Thrice during my submissions, the judges

(Justices N.V. Ramana, S.K. Kaul and B.R. Gavai) told me that I was not audible; later my connection got dis-connected…by the time I logged in again, the judges were already reading out their order,” says Kansal. The SC hearings use the VIDYO App hosted by the National Informatics Centre. Sengupta says the “lack of uniformity” in the platform that lawyers must acc-ess across all courts for video confer-encing too needs to be resolved if virtual courtrooms are to become a

regular feature. “The SC currently uses the VIDYO App while platforms like Zoom, WhatsApp and Webex are being used in some high courts. In J&K, the continued suspension of 4G services has made hearings on video confer-ence impossible,” Sengupta says. There have also been some unintended but hilarious instances —on April 24, a law-yer appeared for a video conference hearing before Justice S.P. Sharma of the Rajasthan HC’s Jaipur Bench wearing a vest. The judge reprimanded him for not being in uniform and adj-ourned the case till May 5.

These glitches, however, sound like lesser problems when compared with the pressing need for other systemic reforms. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi says the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the “need for innovations and new paradigms in the administration of justice” but rues absence of the best technology and equipment available to facilitate daily hearings by all sitting judges of the SC.

With only limited benches presiding over select matters daily, cases pend-ing before constitution benches have been put on the backburner. Each of

“Clear processes to identify urgent matters needed so that court gossip

over arbitrariness is contained.”

KAPIL SIBAL Senior advocate

Your Honour: The Bombay, Odisha and Meghalaya high courts got new Chief Justices in Dipankar Datta, Mohammad Rafiq and Biswanath Somadder respectively, who took oath during the lockdown

LOCKDOWN/JUDICIARY

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 2 3

these—petitions challenging the Centre’s abrogation of Article 370, those against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act or the clutch of petitions over gender dis-crimination in places of religious wor-ship listed before a nine-judge bench—deal with substantial questions of the law and constitutionally guaran-teed fundamental rights. It is worth asking how long their resolution would be held hostage to the lockdown since each of these petitions directly affect the civil liberties of lakhs of citizens as opposed to problems faced by a high-profile, pro-government editor. Guruswamy, who is appearing for peti-tioners in two constitution bench mat-ters—the Sabarimala and CAA petitions—tells Outlook, “I am sure the judges are thinking about how to res-ume hearing these cases under the current circumstances.” Sengupta bel-ieves that a way out could be to ask all lawyers to give written submissions in advance and then be allotted strict time slots to put forth oral arguments via video conferencing.

LEGAL luminaries caution that even if the lockdown ends, or is eased, on May 3 it would take

“months before complete normalcy ret urns to court functioning”. Sibal says, “Unless we develop herd immu-nity, regular functioning of courts will be handicapped because courtrooms are extremely crowded; with the risk of a highly contagious virus, many judges, lawyers and petitioners may not want to be present for hearings”. His fears are only too genuine: the deadly virus has made its debut in the hallowed precincts of the apex court, with a staffer testing positive for COVID-19 on April 27 and two registrars being asked to self-isolate. Sibal warns that the challenge will be enormous at the district and lower courts, particularly in remote areas.

A senior advocate tells Outlook that the absence of concern over the lockdown’s impact on lower courts and the shrill advocacy for virtual court-rooms as a way of the future “smacks of an elitism typical of our justice del-ivery system which places judges and lawyers of appellate courts or the SC on a high pedestal”. The advocate adds, “Given high levels of corruption and an

equally poor emphasis on implemen-tation of schemes,” it is no surprise that “allocations worth over Rs 1,000 crore” made over the years for digitisa-tion of court records and setting up digital infrastructure at the lowest level of our judiciary haven’t yielded desired results. “If you visit a lower court in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Haryana or the Northeast states, you’ll see that neither lawyers nor judges can operate a computer properly. You can’t just flip a coin and move to virtual courtrooms,” he adds.

What is also perplexing is how proceedings in over a dozen tribunals have come to a grinding halt during the lockdown despite these judicial bodies being equipped with video conferenc-

ing infrastructure. Bhopal-based law-yer Yadvendra Yadav says, “The central zonal bench of the National Green Tribunal had been hearing matters through video conferencing for nearly two years, but stopped functioning since the lockdown”. Yadav, also a counsel for the MP government, says the public will pay a huge price for this stalemate as the NGT had stayed work on some key government-funded projects and with proceedings now on hold, cost escalation for these projects would eventually be passed on to common citizens.

The judiciary had a golden opportu-nity—it still does—to envisage a justice delivery system that could function unhindered at all levels during any emergency. The lopsided approach of higher echelons of the judicial system, which account for just about 15 per cent of all litigation and 13 per cent of the backlog, however, places justice under lockdown. A swifter reprieve for Goswami while others wait in virtual queues deepens this perception. O

Tens of thousands of migrant workers have been left stranded—without food, shelter, cash, jobs—during the lockdown

Could the courts not use this period of ‘low pressure’ to

dispose of cases pending

pronouncement of judgment?

P T I

2 4 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

lockdown from April 21 onwards. Manipur shut down on March 21, five days ahead of the national lockdown, partly in anticipation of public unrest at the selection of Manipur’s titular king, Leishemba Sanajaoba, as the BJP candidate for the Rajya Sabha election. The election was scheduled for March 26, but has since been postponed indefinitely. The state’s landlocked geographical remoteness also probably helped in pre-venting the spread of the disease.

The government has been lauded for providing rations and monetary assis-tance to the people of the state stranded in other parts of the country. In a video conference with PM Modi on April 11, chief minister Nongthombam Biren Singh raised the issue of discrimination against people from the Northeast in other states during the lockdown. But amid this onerous battle,

which, to say the least, is far from over, the state government has also been clamping down on voices of dissent. Even suggestions regarding where the administration could be going wrong in handling the crisis are dealt with a heavy hand.

Since the government came to power three-and-a-half years ago, it has not hesi-tated to go after critics. Its strategy has been two-pronged. If an established media organisation is perceived to be the offender, the strategy is filing cases that

O P I N I O N / Pradip Phanjoubam

fight against COVID-19 has been peculiarly

bipolar. While many have come forward to contribute to the efforts to contain the contagion, others are indulging in hate-mongering and paranoia on social media. If this divide can broadly characterise the psychology of the people, in the government’s actions too, the split has become quite apparent.

Like other states in the Northeast, Manipur has been quite successful in containing the novel coronavirus. It has seen just two cases—the first, a student returning home from London, tested positive on March 24 and the other was a participant of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin, New Delhi. Both have now recovered and with fears of widespread infection receding, the state began relaxing the

MANIPUR’S

Questioning the Manipur government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis could land you in jail

Dissent, Corona’s Next Victim

EDITOR OF FPSJ REV IEW OF ARTS AND POL IT ICS

Chingiz Khan, a JNU research scholar, was arrested for an article on the mar-ginalisation of the state’s Muslims.

Clean Slate The two people who tested positive for coronavirus in Manipur have recovered

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 2 5

Devabrata (Bobby) Roy Laifungbam—a doc-tor by training who runs the NGO Centre for Organisation, Research and Education—was picked up by the police for a Facebook post advising the CM not to waste valuable time and resources politicking and instead con-centrate on the fight against COVID-19. Konsam Victor Singh too was detained after he published a Facebook post enquiring about the amount the CM had contributed to the CM Relief Fund during the pandemic. Takhenchangbam Shadishkanta and Phajaton Kangjrakpam of Youth’s Forum for

Protection of Human Rights were arrested for a press release critical of the government’s management of COVID-19 and for a plan to build a quarantine centre by requisitioning a stretch of paddy fields.

These arrests and repressive measures have prompted Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and United Nations (CSSHR), a con-glomerate of nine human rights organisations in the state, to make an earnest appeal on April 4 to the National Human Rights Commission for intervention.

But it’s not only common folk bearing the brunt for speaking out. Even deputy chief minister Yumnam Joykumar was stripped of all his portfolios on a dispute arising out of rice quota earmarked for MLAs for distribution as COVID-19 relief to the people. Joykumar allegedly made irreverent remarks against the CM when some women in his constituency complained to him about not receiving the promised amount of rations during the lock-down. Indeed, free rations received by beneficiaries in different constituen-cies have been varied in amount for whatever the reason.

The media in Manipur is already grappling with the severe blows dealt by the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown. There is barely any business and many smaller organisations are going through an existential crisis. In such a dire scenario, the repressive measures of the government might end up sealing their fate for good. O

(Views are personal)

could be characterised as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP). These are lawsuits against detractors with the intent to censor, intimidate and silence critics by bur-dening them with cases that consume their money, time and other resources. In 2018, Imphal Free Press published a report that termed the government’s victory celebrations “a bit premature” after a TV channel ranked Biren Singh third among chief ministers across India in one of its episodes but omitted his name altogether in subsequent epi-sodes. The state sued the publisher, editor and a reporter of the newspaper.

When it is an individual, mediaper-son or blogger writing social media commentaries against the govern-ment, the response has increasingly been unwarranted arrests under laws such as Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and even National Security Act. In November 2018, TV anchor Kishorechand Wangkhem was arrested under sedition charges for criticising the CM and BJP. When the judiciary rejected the sedition charge as untenable, he was rearrested under NSA. Only after the Manipur High Court’s intervention was Wangkhem released in April 2019.

In September 2018, Popilal Ningthoujam, a youth activist of People Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA), the political party founded by Irom Sharmila, was arrested for throw-ing eggs on the portraits of the PM and CM in a protest against a police raid at Manipur University. He was released on bail a month later after signing a per-sonal recognizance bond of Rs 70,000. In December 2019, R.K. Ichan Thoibi, a young and popular Youtube blogger, was arrested for a satirical sketch on the CM. She was released on bail after 10 days in custody.

This repression has only intensified during the COVID-19 lockdown. So far, five people were taken by surprise by police visits. On April 8, Chingiz Khan, a JNU research scholar from Manipur, was arrested at his home in Mayang Imphal, West Imphal district. This was after a Manipuri translation of an article he had co-written in English for The Pioneer, New Delhi in 2019 on the mar-ginalisation of Pangals (Manipuri Muslims) under the BJP government, was published in a Manipuri daily.

O P I N I O N / Pradip Phanjoubam

After the arrests, a coalition of human rights organisations in the state appealed to the NHRC to intervene.

2 6 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

lenge the mainstream national narrative to the overflowing category of unlawful.

Sections 16-18 were seeped into UAPA from the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) when the latter was repealed in 2004 following mounting evidence of the way in which that law was used to target political dissidents and marginalised sec-tions, including adivasis and Muslims. It is this terrible legacy that has been absorbed into UAPA. The same impreci-sion that attached to POTA’s definition of terror afflicts UAPA too. It is defined pri-

marily through intent (“intent to strike terror”), others things being same. It duplicates a range of criminal law offences, such as causing death, injuries, damage to public property, disrupting essential services, use of firearms, explosives etc—all of which are otherwise also covered under a range of laws. This provides latitude to the executive—both police and government—to subjectively choose what to designate as terror, and what to dismiss indulgently as ordinary violence. It is in their power then to decide when to invoke the draconian provisions of UAPA, and when to apply (and in some cases, never to apply) ordinary criminal law.

And this is precisely the seduction of laws like the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), POTA and now the UAPA.

O P I N I O N / Manisha Sethi

Delhi Police is insistent that investigation into the Jamia Millia Islamia and Northeast Delhi violence

is proceeding ‘fairly’ and ‘impartially’, guided by ‘forensic and scientific evi-dence’. Even in a world where words have seemingly lost all meaning, this statement still manages to sting you with its insincerity. The Delhi Police seems to be mocking us all, rebuking us in fact, reminding us that words and phrases like rule of law, justice, victims and fairness shall be defined only in the manner that the government pleases.

For, immediately after offering us these platitudes, the Delhi Police invoked Sections 13, 16, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against arrested student lead-ers and activists involved in the pro-tests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). Make no mistake, the State has thus deployed the mightiest weapons in its arsenal against dissent. Sections 16 to 18 of the UAPA refer variously to ‘punishment for terrorist act’, ‘raising funds for ter-rorist act’, and ‘conspiracy etc’ related to a terrorist act. And Section 13 per-tains to punishment for ‘unlawful activity’—a term that denotes some-thing simultaneously vague and all-en-compassing, just like ‘terrorist act’.

‘Unlawful activity’, for example, includes bringing about or supporting secession, disclaiming, questioning or intending to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, or causing or intending to cause disaffec-tion. It is thus on the slippery terrain of ‘intention’, ‘support’, ‘questioning’, ‘disclaiming’. And because violence is not even the key ingredient of unlaw-ful act—which embraces everything from act or words, either spoken or written, even “signs or visible rep-resentation or otherwise”—the law allows the government to consign political and social struggles that chal-

THE

UAPA, the anti-terrorism law being used against anti-CAA protestors, hollows out the citizen’s right to life and liberty

Enemies of the State

SETHI TEACHES SOCIOLOGY AT NALSAR UNIVERSIT Y, HYDERABAD, AND IS AUTHOR OF KAFKALAND: LAW,

PREJUDICE AND COUNTER-TERRORISM IN IND IA

Delhi Police seems to be reminding us that rule of law, justice, fairness etc shall be defined the way the govern-ment pleases.

G E T T Y I M A G E S

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 2 7

zenship—from Sharjeel Imam to Safoora Zargar—is then a threatening, dangerous ‘Other’ par excellence.

Read, for example, what the notorious FIR in the Delhi violence case says: it speaks of a ‘premeditated conspiracy’ of rather apocalyptic proportions. It involves—as alleged links in the chain leading up to rioting—young student leaders who gave speeches against CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), protesting women and children who blocked roads under the Jaffrabad

metro station, and all ordinary Muslims who did not send their children to school knowing that violence would break out!

Imagine that sweep. It is not even simply those who have been arrested who are criminalised here…(and that’s a widening lasso that has already netted Jamia alumni association president Shifa-Ur-Rehman). The real effect goes way beyond that. In one stroke, the conspiracy is shown to be one in which the entire Muslim community was complicit, women and children included. ‘Instigator’, ‘conspirator’, ‘rioter’: every Muslim is guilty.

This is no ordinary FIR. Its narrative burden is more than simply to criminalise a democratic movement—a movement that was as peaceful and inspiring in its form as radical in its content, a movement that simply sought adherence to the Constitution. It is to pathologise an entire com-munity. And by extension, to wipe out the fact that the victims of the February violence—now designated as a terror act through the applica-tion of UAPA—were overwhelmingly Muslims.

Would terror charges have been invoked if a different set of accused had been booked for the Northeast Delhi violence—say, those whose speeches openly threatened violence against anti-CAA protestors? That such a prejudiced document is the basis of the present investigation and prose-cution should give us all, and the judiciary, ample cause for alarm. O

(Views expressed are personal)

What the UAPA hollows out is the constitutional guarantees of fair trial and right to life and liberty. It thus per-verts the very notion of rule of law beyond recognition. Check Section 43D(5) of the UAPA, which deals with bail provisions. A replica of Section 49(7) of POTA, it makes it practically impossible for an accused to secure bail. Under this section, bail cannot be granted till the public prosecutor has been heard, and it can be declined if the magistrate concludes, upon reading the chargesheet, that the charges are true. So, in effect, an accused has to demon-strate her innocence, that too at the start of the trial, in order to be even granted bail. UAPA thus explicitly—and legally—denies the presumption of innocence. Which, of course, is the very bedrock of modern law.

Secondly, through its sheer arbitrari-ness, it allows the marking out of ‘ene-mies of the State’, who can then be quarantined and neutered. These are both political ideas and groups (‘urban Naxals’, for example, most recently), and categories of people defined by religious or ethnic markers.

The figure of the anti-CAA protestor condenses both a dissident politics and a suspect religious category. A Muslim out on the streets speaking politics and rejecting the communalisation of citi-

O P I N I O N / Manisha Sethi

UAPA consigns political struggles challenging the mainstream nation-al narrative to the overflowing category of unlawful.

When No Means No An anti-CAA protest in Delhi

2 8 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

ing his expertise in the area. He suggested that India move towards mass tests, ramping up the supply of testing centres, ventilators and ICU beds. There was no response. Ironically, the same evening the PM addressed the nation and asked Indians to clap and clang bells to express gratitude towards doctors. That duly happened on March 22. Soon, India entered lockdown and a doctor’s lockup got indefinitely extended—on April 14, an advisory board refused to revoke the NSA charges on him.

But what is the “expertise” Dr Kafeel cited? Let’s briefly reprise the his-tory of his incarceration. On August 10-11, 2017, children in the Japanese encephalitis (JE) ward of BRD Medical College started dying in a cluster. For want of oxygen—the supplier had not been paid. Dr Kafeel, off duty on the day, rushed to the hospital with a few cylinders he had personally arranged. He was hailed for a day as a hero, when the CM warned him for

“trying to be a hero”. The story turned there. He saw nine months in prison, before the court gave him bail for want of evidence. “I squarely blame the national media,” Dr Kafeel had told this writer in August 2018. “Those journalists who sit in Delhi and Mumbai didn’t even come down to the ground to ask who I was before damning me.” Final acquittal, by depart-mental inquiry, came in September 2019—but was immediately followed by another suspension, vengefulness writ large over it.

But all the dramatic headlines had taken the focus away from JE—which killed in the thousands for decades in that region. The annual toll of 5,000-6,000 that JE exacted around Gorakhpur—up to six-seven times what COVID-19 has done across India till now—stood as an alarm-ing signpost to India’s public health frail-ties. A non-communicable viral disease transmitted by infective mosquito bites, JE shares nothing obvious with COVID beyond a zoonotic link (pigs, rats, water birds are carriers). Specifically, it does not transmit from human to human. But there are commonalities: no specific treatment

or vaccine is available for JE; the only possible cure is prevention.We do not yet know how COVID-19 may interface with classic Indian

vulnerabilities—the physiological ones of our rural populations, and the structural ones of our public healthcare. But JE, first appearing in Madras in 1955 and endemic to the Gangetic belt around Gorakhpur since the 1970s, has a clear class bias. “It is a disease of the poor,” says Dr Kafeel, who spent many months after his release tracking JE’s epidemiological map on the ground. “Some 99 per cent of the kids who die are below the

O P I N I O N / Mrudula Bhavani

Supreme Court directed on March 23 that all pris-oners, under trial or con-victed and jailed for less

than seven years, be considered for release on a six-week parole, in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. On March 28, Dr Kafeel Ahmed Khan, twice-suspended paediatrician from Gorakhpur BRD Medical College, too was supposed to get released. But at the last minute, his parole order was suspended. “All other prisoners on the list were released,” his brother Adeel Khan told this writer. His was a special case, of course.

The Kafeel Khan story is usually told as one that speaks of polarised times and a hard, carceral state—the easy scapegoating of an innocent with the wrong kind of name, dissent being criminalised, acquittal being followed by a harsher charge, bail being fol-lowed by more prison…. But there’s another track to the story. A medical one, which connects the present con-text of COVID-19 to that of another deadly epidemic.

On January 29, a day before India’s first COVID-positive case was reported, Dr Kafeel was arrested from Bombay airport, this time on a political charge. He had already been warning the government and public about the looming health crisis. In fact, he had made awareness videos just before his arrest—explaining what the coronavi-rus is and how the symptoms would show up. From jail, he wrote two let-ters. His first letter again warned peo-ple not to take COVID lightly and spoke of the dangers of Stage 3 transmission.

The second letter, written on March 19, was addressed to PM Narendra Modi: Dr Kafeel requested that he be released so he could lend his energies to the fight against the pandemic, cit-

THE

The expertise the imprisoned doctor offered to the fight against COVID-19 comes from a self-driven struggle with encephalitis, which kills thousands

Dr Kafeel Khan and the Story of Another Epidemic

MRUDULA BHAVANI IS A FREELANCE JOURNAL IST

The annual toll exacted by JE around Gorakhpur is six-seven times what COVID-19 has done so far across India.

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 2 9

it was another month in jail. When released, he spoke of having heard cops discussing a staged encounter. Life had been harsh of late—in June, shots had been fired at his younger brother, Kashif Jameel.

In June 2019, Dr Kafeel camped with a few other doctors in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, where the ‘chamki bimari’ had created panic. The death toll had touched 300; a majority were Mahadalit children. Its cause was commonly, if contentiously, taken to be hypoglycaemic toxins present in the litchi fruit acting on malnourished bodies. This is Bihar’s litchi-growing hub—and poor children were often making do with just that fruit for dinner. Dr Kafeel’s fact-finding team, which diagnosed the symptoms as classic encephalitis, listed seven major causes: poor per-sonal hygiene, lack of clean drinking water, malnutrition (which they want recognised as a health emergency), overpopulation, poor vaccina-tion, extreme heat and humidity, and poor sanitation. Not to speak of public health: Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had promised a virology institute and encephalitis treatment centre for Bihar in 2014. What they saw was a 120-bed hospital with 260 patients admitted.

Dr Kafeel’s primary concern is that the government does not reveal the real data about child deaths, making it difficult to assess progress—or its lack—in ensuring health rights to citizens from the most vulnerable sec-tions. Others agree. “Dr Kafeel Khan’s arrest is unjustifiable, a vendetta.

He must be allowed to continue his work,” says paediatrician and public health specialist Dr Binayak Sen. Manoj Kumar Singh, an independent journalist from Gorakhpur, also says the government hides AES deaths. “After 2017, they are cagey. They claim to have reduced the encephalitis men-ace by 70 per cent...the national vec-tor-borne disease control programme shows a decrease for the last two years. But data is being manipulated. Many cases are recorded as Acute Febrile Illness, even if their symptoms are dif-ferent. My ground reporting reveals no big difference in the situation.”

Meanwhile, the story on the legal track proceeds to script. He was

already deemed too vocal on social media…that had already been cited as a reason in his second suspension. Now, as he made his way to a Shaheen Bagh-like protest in Mumbai, they used an anti-CAA speech he made at AMU to net him. He had spoken of a ‘Health for All’ campaign where he and several others had approached ministers, MPs and politi-cians across India, seeking help to rebuild a shambolic health infra-structure. “Our demand for food, clothes, shelter, health and education is 70 years old. This is everyone’s demand, the poor people’s demand. But they will talk about Bajrang Bali, Kashmir, Ram mandir, CAB, NRC.”

Those words from anyone else would have been seen as the everyday content of dissent, the sort that fills social media. But for Dr Kafeel Khan, it brought jail. Even after an Aligarh court found freedom of speech supreme and granted him bail, the UP government created a new norm and kept him in custody for four more days, at the end of which loomed the NSA. His wife, Dr Shabista Khan, met him in jail after that and fears for his well-being. The Supreme Court had transferred his case to the Allahabad High Court on March 18…but it never even got listed. Another pandemic had come in the way. O


poverty line. They live in huts. They don’t have good sanitation, safe drink-ing water, education. And they don’t have food. Malnourishment equals low immunity,” he told this writer in an interview in May 2018.

His experience turned Dr Kafeel into something of a driven man. He visited hotspots from Kerala to Bihar and Assam, conducting free medical camps, tracking data…trying to see how India’s slothful public health machinery can be primed to deal with epidemics. His focus expanded from JE to the wider pool of diseases bundled under Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES). Their causes could be diverse: viral (like JE), bacterial (like scrub typhus), or even fungal or from toxins. But the effects are always “dramatically acute”: fever, extreme neurological impairment (sei-zures, delirium) and quick death. The data was worrying: Dr Kafeel found that, against a pattern of decline from 2013, the numbers had started increas-ing since 2016. In 2018, each month had seen at least 250 deaths, he told this writer.

AFTER the 2017 incident, the government has “woken up” and pumped in a lot of money,

says Dr Kafeel, but he would like to see a definite strategy. “The BRD in Gorakhpur is only one medical college and it caters to half of Bihar, half of Nepal, half of Purvanchal. It’s no good improving the infrastructure only in BRD. You have to work on the peripher-ies. Encephalitis doesn’t give you much time: if you don’t act as soon as the fever starts, the child goes into coma, and then it becomes very difficult.... To act early, we need a functioning peripher-al-level health system in UP. What we have is a white elephant…buildings, but no staff, no medicines,” he says.

On September 22, 2018, Dr Kafeel went to examine the ‘mysterious dis-ease’ that had killed 70 children in 45 days at Bahraich district hospital. He entered the hospital (with prior per-mission) to talk to the parents of affected children, and zeroed in on encephalitis. But before he could hold a press conference, he was taken and kept in illegal custody for 18 hours. Sections of the IPC were soon evoked:

O P I N I O N / Mrudula Bhavani

“Acting early against JE depends on UP’s peripheral-level health system, but we have only build-ings…no doctors or medicines,” says Dr Kafeel Khan.

3 0 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

Salik Ahmad and Preetha Nair in Delhi

and Ajay Sukumaran in Bangalore

COVERCOVID-19

STORY

Grief. Joy. Love. Loss.This virus kills them all

The most striking depiction of death that I ever read was in one of the Harry Potter books. It was the death of Sirius Black, a godparent to orphan Harry. While fighting in a fierce wizardly battle beside him, Sirius is hit by a powerful spell. Curving into a ‘graceful arc’, his body levitates and sails through the ragged veil of a mysterious archway, disappearing behind it. Screaming Sirius’s name, Harry dashes to pull him out of the

Salik Ahmad

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 3 1

COVERCOVID-19

STORY

doorway, but is grabbed by his well-meaning teacher, “There’s nothing you can do, Harry... noth-ing... he’s gone.”

Author J.K. Rowling doesn’t exactly say that Sirius dies. But he’s gone. Harry struggles with all his might to get out of the grip, to try and save Sirius, the closest to family he had, but in vain.

Except for the very physical passage of bodies that leave us, that is approximately how we feel and perceive people exiting our world. They disappear behind a veil, to the other side, of which we have not the faintest clue, and from where there can be no retrieval. Religions have guided our imaginations, helped us conceive of an other side. Even the stern-est non-theism restores us to primordial matter: perhaps death is a bridge between philosophies. But it still does not illumine life. Clueless about what to do from this side, we often turn to religion, like we do for all things that lie beyond the fief of human capability. We per-form the last rites as ordained by religion, pray for the departed soul. And for the voiding that has happened, we come together and seek sup-port in each other’s company.

But what happens when you can’t do that? The lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic is forcing many people into that very marshy sphere of helplessness. A lady’s father passed away in Assam, and being stuck in Delhi, she could not go for the funeral. The void will remain forever, she says. An elderly man’s sister passed away, just a few kilometres from his house, and refusing all advice, even putting his own vulnerability aside, he went to see her that one last time, to touch her feet, to pay his respects in person. It would have always pricked him if he hadn’t gone, he says.“We haven’t developed societies to live apart from

each other. Everything we have done, the way we have built communities and cities and villages, it is to foster connections,” explains Sabah Siddiqui, a Pune-based psychologist who teaches at FLAME University. “And coming together when somebody dies has been a very important way of mourning. We gather to celebrate the life that has passed, and to look after each other…. The funerals have huge religious significance too. Not being able to give

their loved ones a funeral they deserved causes a lot of distress to people, because it’s seen as necessary to allow them to move on.” Siddiqui works on faith healing and has studied healing practices of shrines for over 10 years.

The coronavirus has caused over 1,000 deaths in India in the past two months. As purely a statistic, it’s paltry because the country registers as many deaths every one-and-a-half hours on any given day. Yet, the billow-ing and malignant mist it has cast over everything far surpasses any number one can put to it. Yes, it’s the high possibility of contagion, the absence of antidote, indeed, the complete domination of public discourse by the virus…all that and something more has turned the country’s atmosphere, rather much of the world’s,

paranoid and morbid. In some cases, it’s even disturbing our normal human responses to death. We are normally prone to according dignity to the dead—even if they be strangers. To say a silent prayer to the passing cortege.

But signs of depravity are entering even that sacred space. Last week, a group of 50-60 locals in Chennai attacked the ambulance car-rying the body of a doctor who died due to the virus and disrupted his burial at a cem-etery. Injured, bleeding, the

ambulance drivers drove the corpse back to the hospital. A fellow doctor and two hospital ward boys then buried the doctor elsewhere, in the thick of the night, under watch of the police. The doctor’s son and wife had come to the cemetery, but had to flee to escape the mob. Rumour spread faster than a virus, fear leached into the soil…would a burial be like sowing the virus? That thought was enough for a neighbourhood to turn into a mob.

In Meghalaya capital Shillong, leaders of the Jhalupara locality did not allow the body of a doctor who died of COVID-19 complications to be cremated at the crematorium there fearing contagion. The traditional local council of Nongpoh town on the Shillong-Guwahati highway, where the ashes were to be buried at his farmhouse, also refused saying he was not a permanent resident of that place. Though residents of Mawryngkneng, a village near Shillong, offered to let the burial take place at the local ceme-tery out of gratitude for his service to them, he was

A Chennai mob disrupted

a doctor’s burial thinking it

would be like sowing the virus.

3 2 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

Salik Ahmad and Preetha Nair in Delhi

and Ajay Sukumaran in Bangalore

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STORY

finally interred at a cemetery in Lawmali area of the city about 3 km from the hospital he owned and where he had breathed his last the previous day.

In Ludhiana, the family of a 69-year old woman, who died due to the virus, refused to accept or cre-mate the body. Officials said they called the family twice and even assured them of providing protective gear. Nobody turned up. Not even the woman’s son. The body was finally cremated by the district author-ities. The virus has truly subverted our long-endur-ing, unstated covenants about how to treat the dead. As if death, and its concomi-tants, have attained new, puz-zling meanings.

This extends to another primal human event: birth. The sprouting of life in the middle of a disruptive dread is almost certain to be a reas-suring, even stabilising expe-rience. Birth is a moment of affirmation, Siddiqui says, of not just that you are alive, but that your future is also going to be alive through this new person. “It’s a promise of life, and its significance is greater at a time like this because the future looks uncertain and dark.” Perhaps this is why birth rates spike during a cri-sis. In desperate times, people fall back on life itself, she adds. Giving birth makes life meaningful; gives more life to life, as it were. “My friend, pregnant of five months, sounds much more positive than I do,” says Siddiqui.

Earlier this month in Old Delhi, a woman in her early fifties gave birth to her first child through in vitro fertilisation. The child had been conceived after many failed attempts, and the family spent a huge amount on the process. The woman’s husband is engaged in the handicraft business and almost all their savings have been exhausted in the past year. With businesses coming to grief due to the lockdown, they have been further squeezed economically. But they have a baby, after years of marriage. In the thick of calamity, amidst an all-encompassing morbidity, a couple’s dreams came true.

Even hope has been a difficult emotion to reach for. A lot of women struggled to access maternal healthcare because of the lockdown. The regular checkups and tests during pregnancy became an ordeal as hospitals and clinics turned into high-risk areas. As corona assumed centrality, it was as if everything else had to be on pause. A woman in Delhi was in fact stopped by the police on the way to a clinic for delivery, and was only allowed to go after a phone call to the doctor.

We also heard heartwarming stories of healthy children being born to corona-virus positive mothers. India’s COVID-infected now number in excess of 30,000; among them are women who are ex-pecting. There is an extremely unsettling dimension there, though. Owing to an almost cruel medical necessity, the newborns are immediately separated from the mother to avoid the risk of infection. What an agonising and alien-ating experience it must be! To not be able to hold your own baby, to be content with seeing images on phone screens, not knowing when the time would come for the mother’s touch, if at all.

Of the forces that govern us, death is the real master, po-tent and unpredictable. A few years ago, I found myself rep orting on a story where a birth and a death happened in the family at the same time. Umar Mohammed, a cattle trader ferrying cows, was

waylaid and killed by a group of cow vigilantes in Alwar. As his body went into post-mortem, his wife went into the labour room. The funeral would happen the next day. The baby wailed under a thatched roof. A small distance away, Mohammed’s father stood next to the body, facing the funeral prayer congregation, and asked if his son owed any body anything. The only thing that hung in the air that day was death. The wails of the newborn had been eclipsed. There’s something about the sight, and sound, of adults wailing. Hovering like a djinn, the master was smiling. O

How agonising must it be for a COVID-positive

mother to be separated from her newborn!

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 3 3

ACHIRA Dev’s father was her best friend. The 35-year old would ring

him up multiple times in a day to dis-cuss the day’s events. She worked and stayed in Delhi, while her parents lived in Silchar, Assam. When things would go wrong for Achira, or she would be in distress, her father would tell her, “Why do you worry so much? Everything is temporary.”

Her best friend passed away on March 31. She was in locked down Delhi and could not go to see him. “I couldn’t reach my father…my father who did everything for me. I couldn’t see him, feel him, touch him,” says Achira, who last saw her father in November, when she had gone home for three weeks. “The void will remain forever.”

Achira’s father had suffered from bronchial asthma for a long time but the condition had never become criti-cal. It turned so during the lockdown.

“There were no flights, no trains, just no way to reach home. I thought of driving down, but it would have taken four-five days, and there were so many states to cross. I don’t even know if they would have allowed me to.”

When she was finally faced with the truth that she won’t be with her father in this dire situation, Achira sat down to pray for him, “All I could do was pray.” Her father had always told her to keep faith in God, especially when things were difficult. Her brother, who lives in Bahrain, could also not get back home for the last rites. The fam-ily members now speak to each other on video chat and grieve over their loss. “I feel it’s easier to mourn and overcome the grief when your loved ones are around you,” says Achira. O

—Salik Ahmad

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STORY

I couldn’t reach my father … my father who did everything for me. I couldn’t see him, feel him, touch him, the void will remain forever.” ACHIRA DEV

Send A Prayer For Strength

S A N D I P A N C H A T T E R J E E

3 4 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

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STORY

“DEATH is the only certainty in life and it’s inevitable,” muses Malay Kumar Goswami, who lost his father in the middle of the pandemic. When he bid

a final farewell to his ailing father a month ago, Goswami had reconciled to the vagaries of life and death. However, the grieving son harbours a regret, which is going to haunt him forever —not being able to perform his father’s final rites.

Reconciling to the death of a loved one is hard, but coping with loss during this unprecedented crisis can be harder, says Goswami. His father, Radha Kishore Goswami, a retired deputy magistrate, was his idol in many ways. The family conducted his sparsely-attended funeral after he passed away on March 20. “My dad’s funeral was attended by a few close relatives who reside in the city. Those who live far couldn’t come,” says Goswami.

The final rituals, according to Hindu tradition, were to take place on the 11th day after death. By that time, the lockdown was already in place in Malay’s native town Uttarpara, near Calcutta, and the family was hamstrung by the restrictions in the city. The family tried frantically to arrange items for the ceremony, but in vain.

Goswami repents that he failed to fulfil his responsibility towards the departed soul, “My father was a religious person and I couldn’t do the rituals for him,” he says. However, Goswami takes solace in the belief that he can offer the rituals on the first death anniversary of his father. “My father will accept it”, he says. O

—Preetha Nair

“My dad’s funeral was attended by a few relatives who reside in the city, and I couldn’t do the rituals for him.”

Waiting For Deliverance

MALAY KUMARGOSWAMI

S A N D I P A N C H A T T E R J E E

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 3 5

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STORY

HARMESH Kohli passed away on the morning of April 8. It was her 80th

birthday. As is normal on reaching a land-mark decade, wishes had been pouring in on the family WhatsApp group from midnight onwards. But Harmesh was unwell, gravely so, and couldn’t sleep a wink the whole night. A restless malaise had grown, then tightened its grip on her gradually for the past fortnight; that night had been unusu-ally difficult. A day earlier, the family had called up a nursing home but, with all resources directed towards fighting corona-virus, no doctor was available. A nurse heard out the symptoms, told them it could be intestinal gas, and prescribed medicines. On the night before her death, Harmesh had, with premonitory lucidity, told her daughter how to deal with her belongings.“She was 20 years elder, almost like a

mother to me,” says her younger sister, Kusum Sachar, who lives seven kms away, but could not see her one last time. “The regret will remain with me throughout my life,” whispers a distraught Kusum.

On hearing of her beloved sister’s death, Kusum’s first impulse was to rush out. But others in the family told her of the risks in-volved. She could contract the virus if she stepped out, was vulnerable herself due to age, and could pose a threat to other senior members in the family. But her brother, who lives in the same house, was resolute about going. “He said he won’t ever be able to forgive himself if he didn’t go,” says his wife Shashi. After much emotional dilemma, the couple decided to go. They first went to the police station, had a lockdown pass made, and reached Harmesh’s house in Tagore Garden. But, since all elderly citi-zens had been requested to stay at a safe dis-tance, he couldn’t enter the premises.

When the bier came out of the house, he touched his elder sister’s feet. They were barred from entering the cremation ground too. “If he had not been there, it would have always pricked his conscience,” says Shashi.

“Many could not come. We can only find con-solation in the fact that she went peacefully, and on an auspicious day.” Kusum remem-bers her sister as a pious, upright person. “I see her peaceful face when I think of her during meditation. I know she understands our situation.” O —Salik Ahmad

“He said he won’t be ever able to forgive himself if he didn’t go, many couldn’t, only consolation is the fact that she went peacefully.” BROTHER’S WIFE, SHASHI

To The Boundless Deep

P R I YA N K A S A C H A R

3 6 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

TRUE to her name, week-old Arthisha has brightened the world

of her parents amid the gloom and despair brought about by the insecu-rity of the pandemic. Bringing Arthisha into the world wasn’t a smooth ride for Piyali Chattopadhyaya, but the new-born’s sudden, toothless smiles have helped the mother to tide over all the tumult. “Arthisha means ray of light. We hope that the world will rediscover purpose and happiness soon, just the way my daughter changed our lives,” beams Piyali.

It was during the last leg of the preg-nancy that her hometown Naihati near Calcutta was locked down along with the rest of the state. Her regular checkups were cancelled as the gyne-cologist discouraged Piyali from visit-ing the hospital because of the risks involved in getting exposed to infec-tion. The crucial last trimester was riddled with anxiety as basic tests such as blood pressure and ultrasound were not done, she says. “It was a nerve-racking experience as there were slight complications during the pregnancy”. Though the expectant mother raised the concerns with her gynecologist, she was told to go either to a nearby government hospital or to wait for a week for the next appointment.

The family was in for some anxious moments when Piyali went into labour on April 23, before her due date. Her husband, Partha Pratim Chatterjee says that they got lucky after a private hospital agreed to admit his wife. “Though there was the uncer-tainty of not having the familiar doctor during labour, we were extremely lucky to get the admission on time,” says Partha Pratim, a researcher with the higher education department.

With no relatives and friends around, the first-time parents are missing the celebrations for the birth of their first-born. “Relatives have seen the baby’s photos on WhatsApp,” says Chatterjee with a smile. O

—Preetha Nair

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STORY

“Though there was the uncertainty of not having the familiar doctor during labour, we were extremely lucky to get the admission on time.”

PARTHA PRATIM CHATTERJEE

A Little Bundle Of Hope

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 3 7

AMIDST a tedious churn of concern and caution comes a burst of joy. Sadia Anwar,

23, gave birth to a boy on April 19 in Delhi. The single mother named the boy Nawfal, after Waraqah ibn Nawfal, a companion of the Prophet. Anwar’s parents had gone to UP’s Sultanpur, where they hail from, for some urgent work, when the lockdown froze all travel. On the date due for delivery, Sadia and her brother were stopped on the way to the clinic by the police, who let her pass only after a phone call to the doctor cleared matters. With all garment shops shut, finding clothes for the baby is difficult; Sadia makes do with old clothes of other, older babies in the neighbourhood. Baby Nawfal awaits a grander welcome. O —Salik Ahmad

RITU Jain and Rakesh Bhansali had their second child on April 25.

Bhansali, a Delhi-based stock trader, says that when the first child was born six years ago, there was no worry. “But today,” says the visibly worried father,

“I have to worry about every little thing. Even the packet of milk that I bring home has to be doused with hot water.” Bhansali, a native of Rajasthan’s Nagaur, continues in the same breath: “You don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. The fear is constantly there…I can’t even be happy with all my heart; it just feels incomplete.” That sense of carefree completion would only come from normality, a state of being the world waits for. O —Salik Ahmad

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STORY

F A R K H A N D A A S H F A Q

“You don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. The fear is constantly there…I can’t even be happy with all my heart; it just feels incomplete.”

RAKESH BHANSALI

A Quiet Nativity

Suspending Open Joy

3 8 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

TWO-month-old Smaran will be among those who will sit around their folks a few years from now, listening

wide-eyed to the details of a time when the world ground to a standstill. And how he saved his parents a great deal of hassle by being just on time. The family was expecting Smaran’s arrival on March 14, about the time Bangalore was starting to close down. But he came two weeks earlier—not premature, but within a predicted range. “So he did us a favour. On hindsight, I can thank him,” says the beaming fat her, K.R. Guruprasad, a techie. Henceforth, some close relatives and friends were able to greet the newborn. Then, a total clampdown. As a result, says Guruprasad,

“A lot of my family members still haven’t seen him.”In a way, the lockdown was propitious for Guruprasad.

He’d been nearing the end of a five-day paternity leave—at his in-laws’ place—when things were ordered shut and work-from-home kicked in. Thus, his time got seamlessly absorbed in baby-care. “Certain things just fell in place. But some didn’t,” he says. For instance, he didn’t have his car with him when he needed it the most, to take the newborn to the hospital for a vaccination on the 45th day. He man-aged to get a cab with some effort. Then, the anxiety of exposure. “Every minute you were at the hospital longer

than required, you kept thinking about the risk. But what choice did one have?”

Yet, admits Guruprasad, “We’ve been very lucky.” Currently, the family’s short only on baby clothes and a cradle. Again, details that Smaran will probably hear about while flipping through the family album years later. But even without a shutdown, the little one would have had a little tale of his own to tell—Smaran’s a leap-year baby, born on February 29. O —Ajay Sukumaran

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STORY

Tales From A Leap Year

DISTANCE, as the cliché goes, is relative. Bangalore to Guwahati seems like a siesta—a

three-hour flight—when things are ‘normal’. In ext-raordinary circumstances, like this lockdown, it’s 3,000 km of deep space. This una ssailable emptiness separates Gourisankar Bora from his wife and their newborn child. “No amount of video calls can fill that void,” says the first-time father, a senior analyst with an insurance solutions company in Bangalore. He is working from home—alone, anxious. Wife Himadri agrees, although convalescing from childbirth (April 23) in the familiar comfort of her parents’ home has been the couple’s plan. She flew to Guwahati in January, with the baby due in April, while Gourisankar would have booked a flight the day she went into labour. All good until a rampaging virus forced the entire nation indoors. The joy of hearing

“It’s a boy!” now feels like a painful gap in a tooth. O —Rituparna Kakoty

“I want to meet my son, cradle him in my arms… but can’t say when I can go. It will be risky even after the lockdown is over.” GOURISANKAR BORA

Is FederalIsm takIng a beatIng In the FIght agaInst CovId-19?

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Bhavna Vij-AuroraPolitical Editor, Outlook

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4 0 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

ten people in attendance seems like an impossibility.

Because you believe that this is tempo-rary, you try out a few recipes and post pictures online. Or you look for courses online, so you can spruce up your CV. There will be new jobs to apply to. This has to end—in six weeks, or eighteen months max, right? You are telling your-self to be patient. So many others have it so much worse. For all the tedium, you’d rather not venture out. Every time you hear of an infection in your neighbour-

hood, you shudder. It is the worst possible outcome.Being cut off from everyone you love and trust, breathless and fright-

ened and not even the touch of a hand on your forehead. If you die, it is one of the worst deaths. Your family will not be allowed to touch you one last time. Strangers might carry your bier and lower you into the grave, or onto the pyre. The prospect of such an eventuality is too heavy to hold on to for longer than a second. I cannot hold it myself. When I read stories about elderly couples in Italy, possibly infected by COVID-19, choosing to not even call the hospital but simply waiting for death in each other’s company, I can understand. Better that than the other.

These days, whenever I see a death announcement on my social media

O P I N I O N / Annie Zaidi

make plans, don’t we? Dinner plans, holiday plans, life plans. We don’t usually plan against death.

Or, indeed, against the upsetting of our plans for ourselves. Plan Bs are also just more of the same—plans that will allow us to envision success or indul-gence or celebration or growth in a particular direction. Some of us even have plan Cs and Ds. Few of us have the heart to plan permanent farewells to the people we love, or indeed, to our own recognisable selves.

In all innocence, the poet (Mirza Ghalib) asks—Maut ka ek din mu’ayan hai/ Neend kyun raat bhar nahin aatiThe day of death is preordained / Why do I lie awake all night? As if he didn’t know! The thought

that death is sure to come for us is not what keeps us awake at night. It is not knowing whether we will be able to survive and acquit ourselves well in the time that is given to us. It is being afraid of wasting time, and of losing the people we love, or failing to give them the best version of ourselves while we can. What keeps us awake is grief, regret, and plans for salvaging and restoring something while we may.

What do you do, though, now that all plans are off? All hopes are replaced by the one hope that you will survive, and so will your beloveds, and hope is all you have because cure there is none. The novel coronavirus has stripped us down to the basics—food, shelter, clothing, including masks, gloves, shoes. Ambitions and acquisitions from two months ago feel hollow in confinement. That smart linen jacket, all that jewellery in the locker, that col-league you were jealous of, that invita-tion you were so thrilled about, that destination wedding. At this point, a wedding at the registrar’s office with

WE

What do you do now that all plans are off, all hopes are replaced by the one hope that you will survive?

There Will Be No Hugging

THE MUMBAI-BASED AUTHOR WRITES ESSAYS, REPORTAGE , STORIES , POEMS AND PLAYS

The virus has stripped us down to the basics. Former ambitions and acquisitions seem hollow in confinement.

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 4 1

complex, including the creation of urns, mausoleums, steles, pyramids and embalming. Lengthy journeys were undertaken to a river or to the sea to immerse the ashes of someone cremated. Lavish feasts were hosted and animals sacrificed.

Behind all funerary efforts and expenses is the urgent need to confront the loss of someone with whom you had (and continue to have) a unique rela-tionship. You acknowledge the person not just as blood and flesh but as some-one who was at the centre of a distinct web of relationships, with a distinct place in this world. The food, the sharing of memories, the travel helped the bereaved move past the fact of a death and into the continuum of life.

During a pandemic, however, the last rites do not permit gathering and rallying around. Old friends won’t be sending floral tributes, or condolence cards. There will be no hugs. Grief will hover in the air. Like the virus itself, it might cling to your breath, hair, clothes, the undersides of your shoes.

Yet, grief is not an event. It can’t be cancelled, or even postponed. It has to be worked through, performed, acknowledged. Traditional rituals might be performed at a later date. In the meantime, we must learn to fall back upon the adaptability that has helped our species weather all storms. If physical distance is the crisis, we must devise new ways to share memo-ries so we can recover something of the self that is lost along with the death of a beloved person who helped raise us, nourished us, or otherwise made us who we are. Perhaps it will mean writing poetry. Or donating food instead of hosting feasts at home. Perhaps it will mean feeding the birds that come to our balconies, or leaving food out for stray animals. Perhaps it will mean singing elegies. Perhaps it will mean working on fam-

ily histories, or sorting through old photo albums, or finding lost connections every day for ten days or forty.

Storytelling, singing and sharing food have always been integral to grieving and recovering. These have also been integral to joy, as at births and weddings. Many people are chafing too at not being able to share joy in tangible ways. The significant thing about celebrations, grieving, or even a long convalescence is that these bring routines to a pause; something changes. You didn’t just carry on as usual after a major event. You found some way to wel-come someone new into your life; you struggled to let go of someone else as

respectfully as possible; you tried to get better and perhaps made plans about what kind of life you wanted. This, at least, is still possible.

Perhaps, by the end of this pandemic—or even through it—we will have to throw out all our assumptions. We might have to grieve for some of them: the ease with which we shook hands with strangers, and even danced with them; the group hugs; the long-distance relationships we thought were entirely feasible and sustainable with weekend catch-ups. We might have to reflect too: the insane proximity of ritual dancing in tiny spaces with fake dim lighting when there was the great wide-open outdoors with natural dim starlight and moonlight; the pressure to hug someone you don’t like, yet simply because everyone else seems to hug and kiss everyone else. We might have to decide whether we want to live close enough to people we claim to love so that we don’t have to go into quarantine every time we feel like meeting them, and whether or not we want to bury or cremate them ourselves. And whether we will have enough beloveds in the neighbourhood to share a feast with, whenever we feel the need to host one. O


feed, I feel sorrier than I would have than at any other time. It is a horrible time to be among the bereaved. Children, grandchildren, nieces—how will they cope, cut off from each other and from the sense of closure that funeral practices bring?

We have always needed to touch or watch over the bodies of departed kin. Mourning is built into human civilisa-tion, perhaps even into our natural instincts. Chimpanzee mothers are known to keep grooming dead chil-dren. Monkeys and apes also partici-pate in certain kind of mourning rituals. So do other mammals like ele-phants and dolphins. Human beings have used their tools, their distinct and expanding ability with language, craft, and narrative and spatial imagination to give shape and meaning to grief. In various parts of the world, we have evi-dence of cairns to signify burial. Prehistoric humans had felt the need to stack stones so the dead were remembered and the doing of it was perhaps a way to process grief. With time, rituals and memorials got more

O P I N I O N / Annie Zaidi

Perhaps, by the end of this pandemic—or even though it— we will have to throw out all our assumptions.

When people drop their guard, Yama takes over...or sometimes a man playacting the god of death reminds Calcuttans of the consequences.

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0 0 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020P H O T O G R A P H S B Y J I T E N D E R G U P T A , S A N D I P A N C H A T T E R J E E , A P O O R V A S A L K A D E , T R I B H U V A N T I W A R I , S U R E S H K . P A N D E Y

Edge of Innocence

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WORLD TOUR

UNITED STATES Donald Trump’s suggestion that disinfectants could be potential treatment for coronavirus has

led producers to sternly warn people not to use it on their body. Reckitt Benckiser, a leading disinfectant producer, said “under no circumstances” should its products be

injected or ingested. Trump said he was only being sarcastic.

SAUDI ARABIA Flogging as a punishment has been abolished in the

Gulf Kingdom as part of the reforms initiated by Crown Prince Mohammed

bin Salman. It will be replaced by imprisonment or fines. Salman, involved

in controversies, most notoriously in journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal

killing, is sprucing up his image through the reforms.

AUSTRALIA Eight-year-old Corona, bullied in school for his name,

ended up getting Tom Hanks’s friendship and a Corona-brand type-

writer. Sharing his ordeal, he enquired if Hanks and his wife were okay since contracting the virus. “Friends make

friends feel good when they are down,” the actor replied.

SANS FRONTIERS

THE exit of Brazil’s justice minister Sergio Moro from the cabinet has thrown

President Jair Bolsonaro’s government into political turmoil. Moro, a popular, anti-corruption crusader, was a star politician. Bolsonaro had earlier sacked health minister Luis Henrique Mandetta, a votary of social-distancing to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, an advice scorned by Bolsonaro. Speculation is rife whether more resignations are in the offing in the coming days.

Moro had overseen Operation Car Wash—a probe into a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal that had led to the arrest of a number of businessmen and politicians, including former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Moro’s resignation was followed by pot-banging protests in cities across Brazil. Moro accused the president of wanting to instal a new federal police chief who would provide him with intelligence reports. Brazil’s public prosecutor Augusto Aras has now asked the supreme court to allow an investigation into Moro’s allegations of political interference by Bolsonaro.

The current row is likely to affect Brazil’s fight against coronavi-rus. It has nearly 55,000 cases of the virus, with over 3,700 deaths.

On April 24, Bolsonaro had fired federal police chief Mauricio Valeixo, an ally of Moro, without assigning any reason and replaced him with the chief of the intelligence agency, Alexendre Ramagem. Bolsonaro, alleges Moro, was interfering in police investigation on corruption. He claimed Bolsonaro had told him that he was going to replace Valeixo with someone whom he “could call, ask for information, intelligence reports”. Moro felt that by firing Valeixo, the president was giving the signal that he wanted him out. When Moro joined the cabinet he was promised full autonomy for his department, created by uniting the justice and public security portfolios into a “super ministry”.

In a televised address, Bolsonaro said, “The appointment is mine; the prerogative is mine and the day I have to submit to any of my subordinates I cease to be president of the republic.”

Observers feel the departure of Bolsonaro’s most popular minister—seen as an anti-corruption crusader--is a blow to the government. Bolsonaro looks weaker now than ever, as the events of April 24 mark one of the most dramatic days in Brazilian politics in recent years.

Though many believe that Moro harbours presidential ambitions, it’s up to Brazilian voters to decide if they want to see him as a replacement for Bolsonaro. O

FOREIGN HAND

Caption Caption space one or two lines caption comes here

5 0 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

Giridhar Jha

BOLLYWOOD is replete with super-stars—the Rs 100 crore+ powerhouses who roar at the box office with or without

talent. And then, there is a minuscule minority of actors who stand out for their versatility and unmistakable passion for the craft. Irrfan Khan belonged to that rare tribe of performers who brought respectability to Hindi movies with performances riveting enough to get acclaim far beyond Indian shores.

Straddling the diametrically opposite worlds of Indian and international cinemas with the ease of a trapeze artist, he deftly switched sides with his ability to make everything he did onscreen look organic. In his demise at 53, not merely Bollywood, but world cinema also has lost a talent who belonged to that rare species of natural actors. He gave his best shot to whatever he did, never discriminating between a Hollywood extravaganza and a low-budget commercial kitsch back home, and stole scenes by default, howsoever minuscule his role might have been.

If Bollywood needed to turn over a new leaf at the turn of a new millennium—the new-age audience was averse to formula films—it found a worthy flag-bearer in Irrfan. With movies like Haasil (2003), Maqbool (2003), Life In A

Metro (2007), Paan Singh Tomar (2012), Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns (2013), The Lunchbox (2013), Haider (2014), Piku (2015), Talvar (2015), Hindi Medium (2017) and his swan song, Angrezi Medium (2020), he helped create a parallel power centre of high-calibre actors, such as Manoj Bajpayee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who had been lurking on the fringes before they burst on the scene. Aided by a content revolution ushered in by a new breed of auteurs, from Vishal Bhardwaj to Tigmanshu Dhulia, they helped Bollywood inhale fresh air with their refined sense and sensibility as actors par excellence.

What set Irrfan apart from his peers was the way he made an impact at the global level. Even though he had bagged a small role in Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1988) early in his career, he arrived on the international scene many years later with The Namesake (2007), A Mighty Heart (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and of course, Life of Pi (2012). With Hollywood biggies The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Jurassic World (2015), he shrugged off the tag of crossover Asian actor, arguably emerging bigger than any of his predecessors or contemporaries from the subcontinent who had tried their luck in Hollywood.

Nonetheless, success did not come to him on a platter. Beneath his stardom lay years of relentless toil. Even though he graduated from the National School of Drama, good opportuni-ties eluded him for long. In the 1990s, the par-allel cinema movement spearheaded by Shyam Benegal, Saeed Mirza and others of their ilk had run out of steam, while commercial movies had no place for an unconventional-looking actor like him. Bollywood was completely under the sway of mushy, romantic musicals back then and an actor like Irrfan, barring an occasional Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1990), hardly found anything of substance in that la-la land. He turned to television to keep the actor alive in him and made the most of his limited oppor-tunities with serials like Chankaya (1992) and Chandrakanta (1994). However, anyone who could fathom the depth of his talent knew that he was destined for bigger things. He finally ‘arrived’ in the new millennium, when the audience began to get tired of bubblegum romances and mindless action flicks, and yearned for stories rooted in real life. Irrfan rose to the occasion, never to look back again.

In retrospect, regardless of his awesome repertoire, he still had a lot more in him than what he could give to the audience and the industry in his lifetime. It is a monumental loss that he was nowhere near his peak when he chose to call his final pack-up in life. It was no time to go, man! O

IRRFAN KHAN (1967-2020)

It is a monumental

loss that Irrfan was

nowhere near his

peak when he

chose to call his

final pack-up in life

SAHEB SUPERNOVA

Turkey’s national flag carrier performed one of the most significant flights on April 23, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Grand National Assembly, and National

Sovereignty and Children’s Day.The TC-JJF registered Boeing 777-300 (ER) type aircraft,

which arrived in Ankara in the morning for this special flight, took off from Esenboğa Airport on April 23 at 09:40, local time. Representing the date 23 April 1920, flight TK1920 lasted ap-proximately two hours and followed a route in which the cres-cent and star symbols in the Turkish flag were drawn. After the flight, which was followed by many through the live air traffic site Flightradar24 that provides flight tracking data, a cres-cent-star route emerged and passed into Turkish aviation history.

The Captain and the First Officer who made this meaningful flight that left its mark in the heavens, made a special an-nouncement in the sky above the Assembly building itself, which was opened 100 years ago. In the announcement refer-ring to the statement of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, “Sovereignty unconditionally belongs to the nation”, it was emphasized that Turkish Airlines ensured that his legacy lived on in the skies.

Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, M. İlker Aycı said “The inauguration day of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, founded a hundred years ago to represent the will of a nation which went great lengths to ensure its freedom and independence, was gifted to our children by its founder Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as “April 23, National Sovereignty and Children’s Day”, reflecting the confidence in the next generation in the safekeeping of these sacred values. As our country’s national flag carrier, we dedicate today’s exclusive flight to our children, the guardians of our future.”

Turkish Airlines draws the world’s biggest national flag in

the sky to honor the founding of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey

5 2 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

Review / ART AND CULTURE

Atul Kulkarni, a two-time Nation-al Award-winning actor known for power-packed performances in films

such as Hey Ram (2000), Chandni Bar (2001) and Rang De Basanti

(2006), is back with The Raikar Case, a murder mystery streaming on Voot Select. He talks to Giridhar Jha about his latest web show, his journey as an actor and his charitable trust. Excerpts:You are known to be very particular about the scripts you choose. What made you sign The Raikar Case, a web show?> I always look for a story, whether I sign a film or a web show. I think we all go to theatres or sit in front of our laptops to watch a great story. The Raikar Case

has a fantastic plot, which moves on two fronts. One the

one hand, there is, a murder mystery; on the other, it is about complex relationships within a family. It is very

intriguing, that is why people are binge-watching it. I am get-

ting a lot of messages about it on social media. I think we have been successful in telling a great story.As an actor, are you getting better

scripts these days than what you used to 15-20 years ago? Are we in an era of content-rich cinema? > I think that any art should be looked at in the context of the social, educa-tional, economical and political jour-ney of a particular region, country or the world. In the past 15 to 20 years, we as a country have gone through a lot of changes. Art is just a reflection of all these changes. Our storytelling has changed because we as citizens or audiences have changed. It has always been like that. Films and other mediums of art are changing fast today simply because things like technology are also changing fast. For example, with the advent of web shows, writing and the way people consume these things have changed. It is a dynamic period we are living in.Do you think that big OTT players will change the way we have traditionally watched cinema?> We don’t know yet. I think what we can do is observe closely as to what is going to happen next. With technology changing by the day, we just have to be vigilant and pragmatic. We need to check on what is going to happen and be prepared to respond to the change.From theatre to movies to web shows, you have done them all. Do you also have to change yourself as

‘Our storytelling has changed because we as citizens have changed’

G E T T Y I M A G E S

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 5 3

Review / ART AND CULTURE

Zaalima Patriarchy

SONA Mohapatra was offered to sing the last few lines of the romantic duet Zaalima in the film Raees (2017). “But I couldn’t fathom why only the

last few lines were reserved for the female voice considering it was a duet,” she says. So, she released a female solo reprise on her You-Tube channel with a quirky video features kitschy animation. “Our film music has completely sidelined the strong solo female voice in the

last decade and it’s time for all of us to notice. In these times, you realise that it’s mostly musicians who have the craft and talent to deliver without too many resources or people helping them. My DIY video should be taken

with a pinch of salt although any good comedy does come from a truthful place,” says Sona. O

—Lachmi Deb Roy

an actor in keeping with the requirements of different mediums?> There are certain things that change, but not much. We have to change because the writing changes with every medium. I have done 120-130-minute-long films and now, I am doing web shows which are 250 minutes long. As an actor, you have to adjust to the need of different mediums, but the basics remain the same. Theatre, of course, is completely different, with challenges of its own.How do you look back at your journey as an actor?> I am not the kind of a person who looks back and thinks, or for that matter, tries to judge how things went. The fact is that I am still living with the help of a profession I chose. That matters to me as of now. I have never really thought about where I am.

You have been associ-ated with a charitable trust working on edu-cation. Tell us about it?> We have been running an NGO called QUEST (Quality Education Support Trust) for the past 13-14 years. We have 60-65 employees

and have reached 95,000 children with the help of about 3,000 teachers in 22 districts of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. We cater to primary education. I believe that education is at the root of any social cause you take up. If you have the right education system, you produce good citizens. That is why I chose the field of education to work in.Are you able to devote enough time towards your cause despite your profes-sional commitments as an actor?> I have always believed that my profes-sion is not my life. The other things I do are also part of my life. My profession is important, but it is a small part of my life. It is not that I have to take time out as such for causes that are important to me. I give time to all things.What are you doing during the lockdown?> I am in my village in Maharashtra, from where my NGO runs. I have a house here, so I keep coming almost every week. Whenever I am not shooting, you can find me here. So, not much has changed for me. O

Poetic Fiesta

NATIONAL Centre of the Performing Arts’ (NCPA) digital series, NCPA@home, is showcasing dance, music and presenta-tions across genres. One of its latest offerings is ‘Raag Shayari: A Musical Tribute to Kaifi Azmi’. NCPA organised Raag Shayari on January 13, 2019 to com-memorate the birth centenary of the poet and lyricist, and will now be showcasing the event on its You-Tube channel (May 8, 6 pm, available for viewing till May 14). It features performanc-es by Zakir Hus-sain, Javed Akhtar, Shankar Mahadevan and Shabana Azmi. O

5 4 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

better known as Naana Jaan to his grandsons Hasan and Husain. With the arrival of their baby sister, Zainab, familial love and devo-tion grows. The tenderest moments are also the most ephemeral, and Husain’s idyllic childhood dissipates with the death of Rasulullah, his beloved Amma, Fatima Zehra, the murders of his father Ali Ibn Abi Talib and his elder brother Hasan. Husain refuses to pledge his alle-giance to Yazid, insolent heir to Amir Mu’awiya, who has secured Syria and crushed opposition in Kufa. The people of Kufa write a let-ter to Husain: “You are the Prophet’s grandson and his people are going through a catastrophic time. No one but you can come to our rescue.” Husain prepares to leave Medina with Zainab and other family members. The journey advances towards the treacherous plains of Karbala and the impending battle.

One Drop of Blood is a timeless parable, a multi-layered text. Bilal Hashmi offers one allegory in his Introduction here, drawing com-parison between Yazid and Sanjay Gandhi; the punishment inflicted upon Yazid’s adversaries, described as ‘ilaj,’ is, presumably, a refer-ence to the forced sterilisation of the urban poor: “Or, perhaps, one might translate that word, ‘ilaj’, more literally, as ‘treatment,’ which, after all, was how Indira Gandhi described the Emergency--‘shock treatment,’ she called it, a phrase coined by Milton Friedman, and then very much in vogue in Pinochet’s Chile.”

The political implications of Yazid inheriting the caliphate after the death of his father, Mu’awiya, and his demand for a pledge of alle-giance from Husain, who, writes Syed Akbar Hyder in Reliving Karbala, had “… accrued unmatched spiritual status and his alle-giance was perceived by Yazid and his advisors as essential to the sur-vival of their rule”, is perhaps the perfect allegory of a distraught age.

Husain’s supporters are persecuted; one gleans from Hyder’s historical chronicling and Chughtai’s retelling that dissenters were either bribed or snuffed out.

A lucid narrative and attention to detail not-withstanding, One Drop of Blood swoons with the cries of mourners. Unlike her previous work, in particular the 1942 short story Lihaaf, for which she was charged with obscenity, One Drop of Blood is almost an Islamic manifesto. “The novel contradicted her image as a secular, rebellious progressive writer, never known to be connected in any way to religious obser-vance or belief,” writes Naqvi.

The story of the battle of Karbala is couched in traditions of Islamic mourning and com-memoration. For it is a tale of sacrifice and suf-fering. In an interview with Jalil Baz Yadpuri in Ismat Chughtai Naqad ki Kasauti Par, Chughtai mentions being deeply moved by the slaughter of Ali Asghar, a six-month-old boy. She had read the marsiyas or masterful elegiac poems of Mir Babar Ali Anis of Faizabad. “The Urdu marsiya writers were heir to Persian lit-erary traditions; and these traditions…pro-vided ever new aspects to the images of Karbala that were projected in the 19th cen-tury,” Hyder explains in Reliving Karbala.

Chughtai’s One Drop of Blood is ultimately a lamentation--a prolonged mourning for mar-tyrs, a battlefield awash with tears. Its grief is a relentless interrogator of history. O

Radhika Oberoi

THERE are several ways to read Ismat Chughtai’s Ek Qatra-e-Khoon (One Drop

of Blood: The Story of Karbala), her last novel. It is, ostensibly, a reimagined narrative of the historic battle of Karbala, fought in 680 CE, between a tiny army of the family and friends of Imam Husain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, and the formidable warriors of the reigning Caliph, Yazid I of the Umayyad dynasty. It is also a political allegory; its allusion to the Emergency in India underlined by the year in which it was first published in Urdu by Fan aur Fankar--1976. That the allegory is as relevant today is a fact that Chughtai eerily foretold, in her preface: “This fourteen-hundred-year-old story is today’s story as well, because man is still man’s greatest enemy….” The story of the battle is also one of inconsola-ble grief. Its elegiac overtones are a tribute to, and a rendition in prose of, the marsiyas of the 19th century poet Mir Anis. The narrative is turgid with grief, even as it is preoccupied with the politics of the caliphate of Kufa, in Iraq.

This English translation by Tahira Naqvi allows for these var-ied interpretations, although one might mistakenly believe that the narrative is a mere clear-eyed recounting of a historical con-frontation between a righteous iman and a debauched caliph.

The story begins with an inti-mate portrait of the household of the Prophet of God, Rasulullah,

Chughtai’s last novel is suffused with intense grief for the martyrs of Karbala, but its sharp political allegory clearly skewers the Emergency

Mirrored Echoes of Mourning

Ismat ChughtaiONE DROP OF BLOOD: The Story of Karbala | Tr. by Tahira Naqvi | Women Unlimited | Pg 440 | Rs 575

ONE DROP OF BLOOD IS A TIMELESS PARABLE, A LAYERED TEXT, A LUCID NAR-RATIVE. UNLIKE CHUGHTAI’S PREVIOUS WORK, IT IS ALMOST AN ISLAMIC MANIFESTO.

BOOK REVIEW

Chitkara University, Punjab became the only University from Punjab to secure position in the in top list of the Times

Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2020 released by Times Higher Education during THE Innovation and Impact Summit on 22nd April 2020.

The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The rankings provide a measure of the extent to which universities are having a positive social and economic impact on the planet; from climate action and gender equality, to good health and wellbeing,” the THE report said.

Chitkara University, Punjab has been ranked 59th rank globally in SDG-07: Affordable & Clean energy. Apart from SDG7, the university has been able to secure good positions other SDGs also, 101-200 in SDG5: Gender equality, 201-300 in SDG09: Industry, Innovation and infrastructure and SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities for development for making progress in ‘social impact’ aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals.

The University participated in 8 SDGs and scored well in all the SDGs which is as good as the scores of all mainstream IITs and other Indian Universities. Chitkara University, Punjab is the only university from Punjab and north India as well to get featured in top list in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2020 with overall rank of 401-600.

How is the ranking created?A university’s final score in the overall table is calculated by combining its score in SDG 17 with its top three scores out of the remaining 16 SDGs. SDG 17 accounts for 22 per cent of the overall score, while the other SDGs each carry a weight of 26 per cent. This

means that different universities are scored based on a different set of SDGs, depending on their focus.

The score from each SDG is scaled so that the highest score in each SDG in the overall calculation is 100. This is to adjust for minor differences in the scoring range in each SDG and to ensure that universities are treated equitably, whichever SDGs they have provided data for. It is these scaled scores that we use to determine which SDGs a university has performed most strongly in; they may not be the SDGs in which the university is ranked highest or has scored highest based on unscaled scores.

Scoring within an SDGThere are three categories of metrics within each SDG:

Research metrics are derived from data supplied by Elsevier. For each SDG, a specific query has been created that narrows the scope of the metric to papers relevant to that SDG. As with the World University Rankings, we are using a five-year window between 2014 and 2018. The only exception is the metric on patents that cite research under SDG 9, which relates to the timeframe in

which the patents were published rather than the timeframe of the research itself. The metrics chosen for the bibliometrics differ by SDG and there are always at least two bibliometric measures used.

Continuous metrics measure contributions to impact that vary continually across a range – for example, the number of graduates with a health-related degree. These are usually normalised to the size of the institution.

When we ask about policies and initiatives – for example, the existence of mentoring programmes – our metrics require universities to provide the evidence to support their claims. In these cases, we give credit for the evidence and for the evidence being public. These metrics are not usually size normalised.

Evidence is evaluated against a set of criteria and decisions are cross validated where there is uncertainty. Evidence is not required to be exhaustive – we are looking for examples that demonstrate best practice at the institutions concerned.

Timeframe Unless otherwise stated, the data used refer to the closest academic year to January to December 2018.

Phil Baty, the Chief Knowledge Officer at THE given special mention: “It is great to see Indian universities stand as world leaders through their work towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, with success in areas as diverse as clean water and sanitation, climate action, affordable and clean energy; and good health and well-being.”

Globally, Australian universities dominated the list with the University of Sydney, Western Sydney University, and La Trobe University in the top four.

Chitkara University is the only University from Punjab to make place in THE Impact Rankings 2020 Chitkara University, Punjab is the only university from Punjab and north India

as well to get featured in top list in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2020 with overall rank of 401-600.

Chitkara University, Punjab has been able to make 59th rank globally in SDG-07: Affordable & Clean energy.

The university has been ranked 101-200 in SDG5: Gender equality, 201-300 in SDG09: Industry, Innovation and infrastructure and SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities for development for making progress in ‘social impact’ aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals.

The University participated in 8 SDGs and scored well in all the SDGs which is as good as the scores of all mainstream IITs and other Indian Universities.

la dolce vita

Overpitched Delivery To Viv The lockdown is playing out in various ways in different minds—new

disclosures, new fads, a hairpin turn to boldness. Thus, Kapil Dev

declares Viv Richards and M.S. Dhoni as his ‘heroes’ and, by way of

admiration, sports a careful stubble, well-shorn hair and a sharp

suit. Would Sir Viv ever wear a jacket a size short so that the puffs

out towards gully and square leg? Never in your life. But then, in

these locked days, where are you going Paaji? Never mind this

ill-advised sally, you remain our hero. Always.

We Don’t Wanna Pillow Fight Yes, we know how to laud genuine achievement. Like this pillowy,

billowy look of actress Tamannah Bhatia’s curated answer to the ‘pillow

challenge’ that’s devised to keep idle celebrities in circulation. Oh, that

clasp around her virginal, textured pillow cover; ah, her cool, faux pose

of studied ennui. And ooh, those ruby-red stilettos ready to stab any

interloper daring to intrude on her reverie. No, she is not the progenitor of

the look—Halle Berry and Anne Hathaway were there earlier. But our girl

outshines them on effect.

MAY 1 1 , 2020 | OUTLOOK 5 7

On a Seventh Gere Several years back, world leaders at a

meet—notably Vladimir Putin—expressed droll

appreciation for then septuagenarian Italian

PM Sylvio Berlusconi’s ability to stay in news

on account of his raging virility. We express

like feeling for Richard Gere, father for the third

time at 70. As his wife Alejandra Silva, 37, takes

care of their new boy, how will Gere fare

with fatherly duties? Listen up then: for a

man who has preserved his crinkly-eyed

handsomeness for ever—graduating

triumphantly from salt-and-pepper to

a shock of white—the question is

an insult.

la dolce vita

Jackie’s Game Jacqueline Fernandez’s course through Bollywood has

been a tale of conquering perceptions—from being seen

as a big-boned beauty of exotic looks to being accepted

as a part of Bollywood’s imagined, hip-swinging desiness.

So much so that even when she uses a lovely straw hat

to tease us in a sea-soaked dishabille state, any trace of

foreignness doesn’t cling to her. Only bits of sand do. Her

lockdown activities? Yoga, self-care and self-love.

That’s a load of work, what?

5 8 OUTLOOK | MAY 1 1 , 2020

RAMZAN

Rana Safvi is a historian, author

and blogger

Ask For The MoonThe lunar cycle governs the Islamic calendar. The two most anticipated sightings of the moon are in the months of Ramzan and Shawwal. The new moon of Ramzan marks the beginning of the holy month of fasting and the new moon of Shawwal signals its end and the fes-tivities of Eid al-Fitr. So, like everyone else, on the evening of April 23, we were glued to news channels and the flurry of messages in our family groups to find out if the moon had been sighted in Delhi. By 8 pm, we found out that people in Kerala and the Gulf had seen the thin crescent, but alas, not in Delhi. We would have to wait for another day—the month of Ramzan would begin from April 25 in the national capital. This year, there was not much controversy about the sighting of the moon. Many insist that only a sighting by the naked eye counts and cloud cover or pollution can easily skew observation. That’s why the date of the first day of Ramzan dif-fers from place to place. Lately, in most of India, the first day of Ramzan and Eid have been usually celebrated a day after the rest of the world.

Holy TidingsAs soon as the moon is sighted, we start preparations for the next day’s sehri (pre-dawn meal), which signals the start of the fast. There are specific prayers to be recited on the sighting of the moon on the shab or eve of the first day of Ramzan. Excitement builds as we prepare to spend the holy month in spiritual pursuits. We recite the Quran and try to finish the entire book within the month, setting goals for its completion. I too prepared myself to achieve these goals.

What’s In A Name?Barely does the controversy over the sighting of the moon die down does another one erupt, almost like clock-work. For many years now, Indian Muslims have been debating whether they should wish each other Ramzan

Mubarak or the more Arabicised Ramadan Mubarak/Kareem. My answer to this hairsplitting is that a rose by any other name smells just as sweet—we should concentrate on the piety and spirit of the month, not the pronunciation. People have become more aware of the Arabic variant thanks to globalisation. In South Asia, we usually refer to the month as Ramzan as Hindustani uses the Persian pronunciation—the alphabet is pronounced ‘zwad’ in Persian and ‘dwad’ in Arabic.

Beyond Food And Water“O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint,” says the Quran. The purpose of a roza (fast) is not to stay hungry and thirsty, but to learn self-restraint. Thus, the roza applies to the tongue too—one must not utter anything harsh in anger, malice, spite or cruelty. The eyes must guard against being attracted to evil and one should raise one’s voice on witnessing oppression. The body must not commit wrongful acts. The heart and mind must remain engrossed in thoughts of God

and spirituality. Charity, an important tenet of Islam, assumes even more significance during the holy month.

Banquet For The SoulWhile all able-bodied adults are enjoined to fast, the sick and aged are exempt. Due to certain medical reasons, I haven’t been fasting for the past five years and give a fidya (compensation) based on the amount I would spend on my sehri and iftar to the needy. However, I follow all the other practices and spend my days praying and reading religious texts. Every year, I used to do a series of posts on social media called #DastarkhwaneRamzan, where I would post an easy to follow recipe for iftar. This year, things are different—there is a lockdown, widespread economic distress and many migrant labourers are still on the road and may not have access to iftar if they are fasting. So, I have started telling stories on my Instagram page. I call them #DastarkhwaneRamzan for the soul. It is my way of connecting with children and adults. My afternoon goes in choosing and recording the story. These are simple tales with a moral that entertain and inform people about Ramzan and human values.

Unlike Any OtherMany of the activities in Ramzan emphasise communal sharing and bonding. But this year, since we are in a lockdown, all prayers must be performed at home. If the restrictions continue, we might even have to offer Eid prayers at home. Since many people are going hungry during the lockdown, we should refrain from unnecessary spending and use that money for charity instead. This is the year to return to the basics: piety, devotion and connecting with Allah in solitude, as Prophet Muhammad did centuries ago in a cave in Mecca. O

2020

2019

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