The Twisted Maharashtra Climax: Triumph or Loss of Face for BJP?

If the national ruling party BJP, through the bizarre turns and twists of the tale, wants the citizens of the country, irrespective of being their supporters or not, to believe that the party was not behind what unfolded in Maharashtra over the last 9 days the party leadership is under a delusion and totally on the wrong track; because everybody has been getting used to their games over the last few years, from Arunachal Pradesh to Goa. It had been a forgone conclusion that the waiting-in-queue former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis was set to become the CM after a lapse of two and half years, till the last few hours in the afternoon of Thursday, the 30^th of June 2022 when the rebel group leader Eknath Shinde arrived in Mumbai to talk and negotiate with Fadnavis for the formation of the new government, still leaving his 49 or 50 supporters behind in Goa. As per the script both the leaders met the Governor and staked their claims. Again as per the script the oath-taking ceremony was to be held on Friday, the 1^st of July 2022. However, things bizarre started happening very fast after that.

 

First, the swearing-in ceremony for the formation of the new government was advanced to 7pm today itself, that is say, at least the swearing-in of the new CM. And then, in a joint press conference addressed by Shinde and Fadnavis the latter dropped the bombshell that the new CM was going to be Eknath Shinde, and not himself as was widely expected in media circles.  Fadnavis went on to say that the state BJP would not even be a part of the government, only extending his party’s support to Shinde’s faction from outside.  That announcement left everyone in utter disbelief and it was speculated that the BJP, in fact, wanted to oust the Thackeray family from active politics while still claiming the legacy of Balasaheb Thackeray and to show that they’d not been hungry for power at all, not at all having any part to play in the split in Shiv Sena. It was also speculated that Fadnavis wanted to become the kingmaker or the remote control to monopolize the Hindutva space in the state.

 

In another twist just before the oath-taking ceremony Devendra Fadnavis announced that they’d in fact be a part of the new government and that he’d be the new Deputy Chief Minister. This announcement was supposedly made at the directions of the BJP high command in Delhi. And accordingly, the swearing-in ceremony was organized with Shinde taking the oath as the new CM and Fadnavis as the Deputy CM.

 

While the earlier speculations we mentioned could still be valid the question arises as to why the mighty BJP should allow the party to demote itself to a secondary position. Could it be due to factors of compulsion? Because, the only hope of the BJP to recapture power depends entirely on that faction of 49 legislators supporting Shinde who claims to be the real Shiv Sena and should they decide to go back to the Thackeray fold later the BJP would again be out of power. This makes the alliance as unholy as the earlier one looking at a volatile future ahead. So far the defectors have been kept safely away from the hub of politics, but they will have to come back to take oath, join the government and run it.

 

Another question that arises is that if the BJP is agreeable to giving away the post of the CM to Shiv Sena why they didn’t do it in 2019 which would’ve prevented the entire political drama to unleash ceaselessly in the following two and half years and would’ve ensured a BJP CM for at least two and half years seamlessly. Such questions raise the doubt that the BJP has in fact suffered a loss of face under pressing compulsions. One BJP national spokesperson has stoutly justified the move saying that their party is committed to ending family rule in politics across the country; well, that can be too tall a promise. Besides, a long battle lies ahead of Shinde’s faction to fight for the original party symbol and to appropriate the Balasaheb legacy at the same time. On the other hand, the NCP stalwart Sharad Pawar is not going to sit idle and watch the games as a spectator. Only the future can tell on how solid grounds the new alliance stands at the moment.

 

In any case, it’s become a struggle for sheer survival as far as Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray and their loyalists are concerned. They still have the support of about 16 legislators and a few of the Members of Parliament, and enjoy grass-root support in the metro of Mumbai. But the real test scenario is set to unfold in rural Maharashtra and other districts of the state. They should stop crying hoarse about their own people deserting them, and instead should fight it out in all corners of the state.

Uddhav Thackeray Resigns, Celebrations in the State BJP Camp!

Ahead of the trust vote ordered by the Supreme Court that is to be carried out on the floor of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly by 5pm on Thursday, the30^thJune 2022 Uddhav Thackeray has resigned from the post of Chief Minister on his Facebook Live address at 9.30pm today which was taken live on the television news channels across the country. The emotions of Uddhav Thackeray hardly mattered now as his resignation signified the end of his government and the trust vote tomorrow has become redundant. He has also resigned from his elected post of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. What had been billed as the ideal opposition alliance for the country to counter the growth of BJP the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has come to an end too. News of the formation of a new government led by the former CM Devendra Fadnavis is circulating at the moment with some news channels predicting a new government on July 1, 2022. The Governor, after accepting Uddhav’s resignation officially, may invite the single largest party which is BJP to form a new government and prove their majority later or the BJP with the Shiv Sena rebels may visit the Governor to stake claims. Uddhav’s resignation letter was in the process of being handed over to the Governor as the last reports came in.

 

Meanwhile, the holidaying Shiv Sena rebels (now claimed to be 49 including a few independents) along with their leader Eknath Shinde had been shifted from Guwahati to another luxury resort in Goa in the evening today and they are likely to return to Mumbai early morning tomorrow to have discussions or negotiations with the BJP first and then picking up on the government formation process. It’s almost certain that Fadnavis will be the new CM, waiting for more than two and half years. It can called a quirk of nature that the Shiv Sena left the pre-poll alliance with the BJP on the CM post issue, demanding a rotational CM for half of the five-year term each; and in around two and half years only the Uddhav government has fallen.

 

The state BJP has been celebrating in their Mumbai party office with Devendra Fadnavis present and being served with sweets. There are actually three cheers for them: first, they’ve avenged the betrayal of the Shiv Sena in 2019; second, they’ve successfully engineered the biggest split ever in Shiv Sena ranks thus somewhat clearing the way to become the only Hindutva party in the state; and third, they’ve achieved a most significant victory in the run-up to the General Elections in 2024 by recapturing the state with the financial capital of the country. Although Eknath Shinde wants to retain his faction’s identity as the real Shiv Sena it’s going to be a long legal battle to do so. The Shiv Sena earlier made it very clear that they’d never allow the legacy of Balasaheb Thackeray to be taken away from them. How long would Shiv Sean exist with the isolation of the Thackeray family is also to be seen in the coming days.

 

There have been protests against the ‘traitor’ rebel MLAs and counter demonstrations in support of Shinde across the state in the last few days which made the Governor order the state police to ensure safety of the rebels once they come back to Mumbai. Interestingly, the pleas for and against disqualification of 16 rebel MLAs as demanded by Shiv Sena is pending with the Supreme Court with a hearing scheduled on 12^thJuly. The apex Court came into the scenario as there’s been no Speaker in the assembly and the Deputy Speaker in charge is qualified to handle the matters relating to issues of disqualification and ordering a no-confidence motion.

(PS: The Final Twist! As on the afternoon of 30.06.2022, former BJP CM Devendra Fadnavis has declared the Shiv Sena rebel group leader Eknath Shinde as the next CM of Maharashtra!! This move has surprised one and all. Is it aimed at finishing off the traditional Thackeray family led Shiv Sena? It'll take time for a much clearer picture.)

The India Monsoon EMIs in Severe Default!

The South West Monsoon has always been the mainstay of Indian agriculture, being the main source of rainfall accounting for more than 75% of total rainfall in the country every year. Most often than not, the IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) forecasts a normal or near-normal monsoon with about -/+ 5% margin of error, and this year (2022) too it had predicted a normal monsoon which, in fact, was supposed to arrive at least a week in advance. And, it did indeed arrive early hitting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands by middle of May, and then advancing to Kerala, to Maharashtra and gradually the whole country. Unfortunately, its early arrival hasn’t benefited even Kerala and Maharashtra, patiently queuing up for the early-bird offers,  while venting its wrath in the North East, particularly in the state of Assam creating unprecedented floods in the main city of Guwahati and many other districts. In a few days the monsoon had exceeded its monthly quota of rains in Assam by more than 150% and rained more than 200% of its quota in Guwahati in a few hours. And, it’s still not relenting.

 

As per the latest data released by the IMD the monsoon has been either deficient or severely deficient in 18 states that account for around 54% of the total land mass of the country. Ironically, hoping for the benefits of its early arrival Kerala is suffering from around 55% rain-deficit of the June quota while the next-in-line Maharashtra is 33% deficient. The deficit goes to up to as high as 70% in case of Delhi, covering in its wake most of the northern states. So, where exactly the monsoon is pouring? Obviously, the most indiscriminate downpours falling in severe excess in the North-East and in parts of the Eastern region, and of course, some other scattered areas.

 

The South West Monsoon stays in action for four months, namely June-September, every year. Therefore, we can reasonably call it Equated Monthly Installments (EMI) of rains and hope for its equitable distribution during the period. However, since the last nearly two decades we’ve been witness to the most unjust EMIs; at times, the full EMI quota gets poured out in a matter of hours or in one day as we’ve mentioned earlier for some regions while in other areas the EMIs go into a severe defaulting mode. For the floods in the metros and major cities suffering people blame the municipal authorities for their failure to prevent water logging by not preparing well; but, when a full EMI get spent in a matter of hours, no authorities could possibly hope for prevention, not only in India but all over the globe.

 

Who are to blame for this then? Well, we cannot hope to find easy scapegoats except for the immensely demonstrated wrath of Mother Nature, again and again, as if punishing humankind for its sins spread over centuries. Obviously, the sins of humankind are making this Planet Earth increasingly inhabitable with the waves of heat in terms of a global warming that is going out of control as well as the unprecedented bursts of showers to follow in suit—both making life extremely painful. Are we learning any lessons yet?

 

The IMD goes on to say that the inactive phase of the monsoon in many regions could possibly be due to the non-formation of low-pressure systems over the Bay of Bengal; but then, this doesn’t explain the worrying shortfalls in some of the Northern, Western and Central states. Hopefully, they say, the active phase would begin in the first week of July 2022 that can help recover the deficits. In that too, there are causes enough for more worries. As per the defaulting EMI syndrome, the compensation could come in unprecedented downpours in one hour on in one day which would again make people suffer. Who can bring the EMIs to an equitable mode? Ever again, if at all?

 

We cannot forget the downpours in the city of Kolkata last year when the delayed monsoon vented its wrath in very concentrated heavy downpours later which resulted in severe water logging all around the city with the water threatening to enter houses in areas that never saw such events. On many occasions earlier I’d mentioned the ‘YesMonsoon, No Monsoon’ situations in the financial capital of Mumbai, and the suffering of the farmers of Maharashtra in many of its drought-prone areas. This time, I’ve seen similar situations in Kolkata, the City of Joy. The Monsoon arrived in North Bengal much in advance and heavy downpours are still continuing there. But there’s absolutely nothing to indicate that the Monsoon has also arrived in South Bengal, particularly in Kolkata. Despite regular weather forecasts for rain on a daily basis, the monsoon is defying it on a daily basis too as if enjoying the prolonged spell of humid and sweating heat in the city. The temperatures are still hell-bent on crossing the 35 degree C on a daily basis, adding more misery to the citizens with humidity of more than 80% that is triggered by the inconsistent light rains. As on June-end Kolkata is suffering a rain-deficit of more than 50%. For the next months of July and August we wait with fingers crossed, because we don’t how the ‘compensation or recovery’ would materialize.

 

Hopefully, as the IMD says, the Monsoon does really become active in the coming days, and most importantly, sticks to a strictly non-defaulting EMI mode. The farmers in many states are still waiting to sow their seeds, and the subsistence living of most of them depends on an equitable distribution of rains in the coming months. Excessive rains damage their plants as well as the lack of it, and we hope the ‘compensation’ doesn’t spill over to more months, because unseasonal rains damage their growing plants with more devastating effects.

Movie Runway 34: Ajay Devgn Gives a New Bollywood Treat in a Fairly Gripping Drama!

In all my Bollywood, read Hindi movies, viewing experience this should be the first movie with a serious attempt to deal with an air disaster or a possible air disaster, a genre that the commercial Hindi films never really tried to explore barring a few on plane hijack, most prominently the intense drama of Neerja (2016) based on a real-life brave air hostess. The movie Runway 34, also loosely based on true incidents and released on the occasion of Eid in April-end this year, tells the story of a flight from Dubai to Cochin that entered the vortex of a raging cyclone nearly crash-landing in the Trivandrum airport with 150 passengers on board, and then followed by the grueling investigation into the near-crash. The first half of the film dwells entirely on the flight starting at the wee hours from Dubai and is a gripping saga of what happened on its course from the takeoff onward, told with the required details and intensity that are always missing in most commercial Bollywood movies. However, as per some traditionally cherished ingredients of a typical Hindi movie we get treated with a background song during the climax of the flight landing, instead of making it a memorable one with the main pilot Captain Vikrant Khanna (Ajay Devgn) steering the plane to a landing on his chosen Runway-34, blindfolded and with an unlit cigarette on his lips. There are bound to be more of the kind as we move on; but the first half indeed makes this movie immensely watchable.

 

Ajay Devgn, one of the most intense and powerhouse actors of Bollywood, also makes his first successful film as a director after two pathetic attempts in the past. His firm, Ajay Devgn FFilms, is also the producer of this film. With an admired and adored superstar hero at the helm of all possible affairs of this movie, particularly as the Captain in the cockpit too, we’re bound to confront more and more of the cherished values rampant in a big Bollywood production. However, despite this overpowering fact in fiction, the likes of the superstar of the millennium, Amitabh Bachchan, were strictly kept under wraps, perhaps as a surprise package for the viewers, as he appears out of nowhere and takes full charge of the second half. Before we go to him let’s take note of the ‘cherished values’ we’ve talked about.

 

Rated as one of the best pilots of the country who is admired as respected as a hero by all in the airline industry, Vikrant Khanna seems to be doing all the wrongs things, right from the beginning. In the night before his flight he goes to a party to join a friend, does all kinds of mischief and hardly sleeps during the night; he lies to his doting wife Sumaira (played by Akanksha Singh) in Cochin with their daughter’s birthday coming up the next day; he behaves rather arrogantly with his co-pilot Tanya Albuquerque (played by Rakul Preet Singh) and shows off disdainfully during the pre-flight briefing; he tries to smoke everywhere possible, but scoffs with a refrain ‘Haven’t lighted it yet, right?’ to the reminders in the no-smoking zones; during the flight, when alerted of inclement weather in Cochin, Vikrant ignores Tanya’s suggestion of diverting to Bangalore and makes the near-fatal mistake of trying to land in the mouth of the cyclone in Trivandrum. Nonetheless, Vikrant is played by none other than Ajay Devgn, and therefore, despite all the shortcomings he must emerge as a hero at the end. This brings us to the second half and to Amitabh Bachchan.  

 

In the role of a dedicated air-accident investigator Narayan Vedant, Amitabh Bachchan was expected to put in more intensity and drama into the story; but unfortunately, despite being the superstar of the millennium and a craze for character roles since 2000 he fails to uplift the movie. This has several reasons: firstly, he’s grilling Vikrant, played by none other than the superhero Ajay Devgn, and naturally Vikrant has to emerge as the ultimate hero here too, for the obvious need of having the empathy of the viewers; secondly, thanks to the first reason, the most crucial details like the advice of the co-pilot are brushed under the carpet, with the supposedly honest-dedicated investigator not caring a damn for those links; thirdly, his techniques seem to be more like a cunning lawyer in a normal courtroom, instead of being a technically-proficient air-accident professional; and the owner of Vikrant’s airliner, Nishant Suri (played by Boman Irani) is shown to be only indulging in clichés. As a result, the second half of an otherwise gripping drama falls flat and disappoints the audience sorely.

 

I don’t want to give spoilers’ alert here and so cannot disclose the intricate details involved in the final emergence of Vikrant as the ultimate hero. Unfortunately, all these have cost the movie dearly as it’s flopped at the box-office, failing to recover even half of its budget. Such ambitious, sincere and new-genre movies should never fail like this. It’s said that the movie is inspired by, naturally enough for a new Bollywood genre experiment, by several Hollywood movies on air disasters. However, if it’s inspired it should be inspired enough to not indulge in the traditional Hindish ingredients and do a real inspired job. Rakul Preet Singh and Boman Irani have done very well in the limited roles assigned to them. Amitabh Bachchan too seems to have suffered from the limitations of the role assigned. And of course, not to forget at all, Ajay Devgn delivers a powerhouse performance yet again to make the movie watchable, even if it amounts to only because of him.

Maharashtra Political Thriller: A Shiv Sena without the Thackerays?

We’ve been liberally treated with political thrillers like that is happening in Maharashtra at the moment across the country since the last few years, thanks to the aggressive power-politics of the national ruling dispensation (BJP) which fittingly matches its aggressive Hindutva nationalism. However, the present game has been inevitable since the year 2019 when Shiv Sena (SS) parted ways with the BJP after jointly fighting and winning the assembly elections, and after a landslide victory for the alliance in 2014, on the CM post issue, and forming a coalition government Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front or MVA) with the Congress and the nationalist Congress (NCP). For the last two and half years the state BJP has been a grumpy lot, alleging a great betrayal by the SS and wanting desperately to avenge it; in fact, they’d tried at least three times to derail the coalition so far. This last one, even though the party has continued to be in denial about any involvement, has proved to be the biggest coup within the Sena in history, threatening to finally dislodge the Uddhav Thackeray led MVA government.

 

The most definitive parameter of such political thrillers, the hotel-resort politics, is very much there in this too: first the dissident MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) led by Eknath Shinde, one of the senior-most and loyalist leaders of the Shiv Sena, were lodged in a five-star resort in Surat, a city in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat, and then shifted unexpectedly at the dead of the same night to a five-star venue in Guwahati, of course, the capital of another BJP-ruled state of Assam with one of the most prominently aggressive national BJP leaders, Himanta Biswa Sarma, being the Chief Minister there. Dissident leader Eknath Shinde reportedly moved in there with around 30 supporting Sena MLAs which has increased to 42 (total of 46 including independent MLAs), as claimed by him on the morning of 23^rd June, 2022, for which he’d provided video proof too.

 

As per the anti-defection law Shinde needs to ensure the support of at least 37 MLAs which is two-thirds of the 55 SS MLAs in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly after the 2019 assembly elections. With apparently more than the required number the dissidents can now avoid disqualification and vote for the BJP in case of a no-confidence motion or in terms of showing the numbers to the Governor of Maharashtra to stake claim for the formation of a new Government with the BJP, the traditional partner of the SS on the basic Hindutva issue till 2019. Buoyed by this support Shinde has been claiming to be the leader of the ‘actual’ Shiv Sena, wanting to retain its identity at any cost. So, now we’re faced with a situation of a Shiv Sena without the Thackeray family whereas it was the legendary Balasaheb Thackeray, father of the present CM Uddhav Thackeray, who founded this party on 19^th June, 1966 in the interests of protecting the rights of the local Marathi population of the state.

 

Emotions ran high last evening, the 22^nd of June 2022, when Uddhav Thackeray, a gentleman-politician as always, made an address in social media appealing to all his MLAs to tell him face-to-face if they wanted him to resign that he said he was ready to do anytime, instead of conspiring behind his back. He added that his becoming the Chief Minister was only accidental which is actually true as the coalition partners wouldn’t have agreed to a non-Thackeray for the post. He also threw a kind of bait to Shinde, asking if they could ensure a new Chief Minister from his party only in the new scenario. In a further confirmation of his intentions Uddhav, found to be COVID positive in the morning, along with his family vacated his official CM residence Varsha late evening the same day, and moved to his family home Matoshree, around 9 km away. And we’d witnessed a spontaneous burst of love and support throughout his short journey home with thousands of Shiv Sainiks (Sena workers) and supporters accosting the traditional Sena leader and his bright promising minister-son Aaditya Thackeray on the streets of Mumbai. In my experience of over three decades this could only be only the second occasion of a spontaneous mass outburst of loyalty for a Thackeray, than during the days when Balasaheb lay seriously ill at Matoshree and eventually passed away in 2012.

 

Perhaps, somewhat nonplused by those emotional proceedings Eknath Shinde shied away from his intended press conference in Guwahati last evening, and instead shot off an ‘emotional’ letter to Uddhav this morning alleging a saga of sheer neglect to the SS loyalists by his coalition government that consistently preferred those of Congress and NCP only. However, despite the charged emotional drama MLAs kept on defecting from the Uddhav group and flying over to Guwahati, at times accompanied by BJP leaders.

 

The main spokesperson of the SS, Sanjay Raut has been saying repeatedly that the CM was not going to resign and that once the ‘imprisoned’ flock of MLAs returns to Mumbai it’d be an entirely different scenario as he has claimed to have been in touch with at least twenty dissident MLAs. He has also said that the traditional supporters of the SS have reiterated their binding faith in the Thackerays, have called the Sena dissidents as ‘traitors’ and have warned that they’d defeat them in the next assembly elections. All these claims and counter-claims about the numbers make this abundantly clear that this political thriller is far from over at the moment. Coincidentally, the 80-year-old Governor of Maharashtra has been in a hospital after being proved COVID positive.

 

Eknath Shinde has made it clear that his fight is to save the SS from this ‘unnatural’ coalition and to reunite the party with its traditional Hindutva partner BJP. Therefore, basically, Shinde wants to be the leader of the ‘actual’ or the breakaway faction of the Shiv Sena, and does not want to merge with the BJP. If he’d like to be considered for the post of the new CM, the BJP is extremely unlikely to agree to that with the dislodged former CM Devendra Fadnavis waiting patiently for over two and half years. Further, the Election Commission has to come into the scenario later as to which faction is going to have the right to continue using the old party symbol. Whatever be the future proceedings of this number-game, now apparently not at all in favor of Uddhav Thackeray, a Shiv Sena without the Thackeray family is not a concept that’d have acceptance from the larger Marathi people of the state.

IPL Looming over India’s International Cricket?

No doubt, we cannot question the fundamental rights of people, particularly the ebullient young generation, of loving short and sweet but highly entertaining cricket games like movies. Add to it the digital revolution taking place all over the world as well as in India, even penetrating the rural areas thanks to the initiatives of the government. Now everyone, young or older, wants to enjoy whatever they love on their mobiles or tabs or laptops from wherever they happen to be. For what do you think the streaming platforms are becoming so popular? The digital experience is always unique, as it is very personal, independent and not location-dependent as we’ve already mentioned. In such a scenario what the Indian Premiere League (IPL) has achieved in its 3-day e-auction for TV and Digital broadcasting rights is mindboggling indeed, but not entirely unexpected. The four packages of media rights, A, B, C and D, fetched the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) a record-breaking figure of $6.2 Billion or INR 48, 390 Crore for TV rights, Digital rights and Digital rights on zonal basis across the globe for the IPL seasons during 2023-2027 with around 410 matches to be played. It means an incredible $13.4 Million cost for the broadcasters or BCCI revenue per IPL match.

 

These eye-popping figures are not only several times higher than all of the previous IPL media rights auctions, but these figures mean that the IPL is now only second to the US  National Football League (NFL) in terms of revenues per match. NFL is the highest revenue-grossing sports brand with around $17 Million per game, and now the IPL has become the second highest sports brand in the world, beating the MLB (Major League Baseball) and the EPL (English Premiere League) with $11 million each per game respectively.

 

The BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and other office-bearers, though perhaps a little apologetic as the IPL has always been called a money-spinning glamour tournament, have hailed this as the inevitable outcome of the modern age and more importantly that it’s not just for earning money, but to improve the cricket infra in the country, discovering more and more talents and also a women’s IPL tournament on the anvil from 2023 onward. Well, it’s true that such kind of money could be used very productively indeed, but the ‘commerce’ part of cricket has come into the IPL more obtusely now, and it’s already manifested the effects or it’d go on doing now like a dictator in international cricket.   

 

Let’s just take a look at the T20I Series between India and South Africa going on at the moment which is supposed to an official ICC bilateral series, more important in view of the upcoming ICC CricketT20 World Cup later this year. Quite a few of the South African stalwarts have gained immensely from the IPL-2022 and have put in their efforts in the bilateral series, winning the first two matches hands down. Not to take away the due credit we have to look at the Team India: it’s not even a second-string national team with a stand-in on a stand-in skipper and most of the other players being rookies, giving the team an IPL franchise appearance rather than that of a national team; with most of the Indian stalwarts who’ve also gained a lot from the same tournament are either being rested or injured. With the commerce-crazy Indian cricket the difference between ‘rested’ and ‘injured’ is always highly deceptive.

 

Now, the BCCI is set to increase the total matches to be played in an IPL season gradually over the next five years, 10 franchises being there, you know. Therefore, one season could take around two and half months instead of two at present, and combining this with the ‘must-rest’ star cricketers all international cricket matches are going to feature only IPL rookies and winning an international series thus could be reduced to a secondary consideration. With the richest cricket Board of the world getting richer still the BCCI can easily convince the ICC to include the IPL in their annual official cricket calendar.  Coming back to the current series, even by IPL standards Hardik Pandya should’ve been appointed the stand-in captain as he was spectacular in the IPL-2022, becoming a captain for the first time and leading a newbie franchise to a huge title win. But Rishabh Pant is the crux of that inevitable ‘commerce’ and he cannot be ignored at any cost in any format of the game.

 

However, the justification for a second or third string team against South Africa is of ‘resting’ the key players for the leftover test match against England in Edgbaston, staring 1^st July 2022. And of course, Pandya is appointed to lead India against Ireland for T20I games. In the third match played on 14^thJune the Indian bowlers somehow overhauled themselves to the required line and length to beat South Africa by 48 runs to keep India alive in the 5-match series, with South Africa leading 2-1 and the next match to be played tomorrow.

 

Well, I’m only expressing a fear that international cricket for India could just become formal experimental exercises and the great brand of the IPL is set to be looming over everything there’s to be concerned about international cricket. I was amazed to read a news report somewhere that in the India-SA series India is actually not looking to win it, but only trying to test its bench strength in terms of, surely, the IPL rookies. We’d seen many times earlier how this kind of endless ‘experiments’ spelled India’s doom in ICC tournaments. Therefore, IPL would indeed find more and more talented players making many of them richer too; but it’s doubtful if it’s going to make the glorious game of cricket richer in terms of not money, but in terms of glory and pride.

The Pandemic-Driven Desperation Is Worrying!

The two-year long COVID-19 pandemic (no signal that it’s ended) has jolted the Indian economy almost out of its roots, heightened by the fact that the economy had been under a lot of strain for at least two years prior the outbreak. The normal demand-supply equation has gone bizarre—the supply chain not yet being able to resume its normal course, with some of the key sectors suffering maximum damage, in light of insufficient demand as the common people now want to hold on to their savings fearing an uncertain future. Normally, with less demand and normal supply the prices should fall and this has led many experts to expect a recession soon or already in the process. However, prices only kept on rising, crossing a whopping level of 7% in the recent quarter that’s made the Reserve Bank of India increase the Repo rate twice in two weeks. With some knowledge of economics I feel that while the customers are not spending their money enough the suppliers not still getting the normal booming times want to break even or recompense by raising the prices, covering all the essentials as well the consumer durables. This brings us to the desperation displayed by almost all stakeholders to stay viable and to survive.

 

Millions of Indians have lost their jobs or regular sources of income, fully or partly, in the two-year slump and are now desperate to generate some sure income for sheer survival. Apart from causing more shortfalls on the demand side, these people are mostly trying to take up any casual jobs and try doing their best. Therefore, it’s no surprise that people like us, in some level of safety in terms of survival, are getting marketing calls from such desperate casuals, accounting for more than 90% of the daily phone calls. Invariably, these calls are designed to make you part with your income/savings or to give you income in the way of personal loans.

 

The casuals working for the telecom companies, the banks, the insurance companies and the like daily sit with their phone database and call up one and all at a daily basis. They want to convince you cutting a deal like get a new connection or to port the existing connection, purchase a policy, go for a new credit card or confirm for a personal loan so that they can earn their commissions to justify their temporary occupation and to generate some income. I’m appalled that they don’t even spare the retired people, offering loans or cards or policies without bothering to find out if they were eligible at all. On getting a call like that I ask them what I am going to do with a personal loan now, because a retired person normally doesn’t have too many plans for new purchases and that it’d be like just paying back the loan every month, losing a sizeable amount of money in the process. But they insist that all are eligible based on their credit score or something like that. Add to this the food or the cab or other aggregators who shower you with repeated messages/promos/discounts to go for it. With obstructed and declining economic growth such kind of desperation is not going to end soon.

 

The desperation is visible in other fields too. That day, being almost roasted alive inside the house by the grueling humid heat, I decided to go out for a relief in the evening. As I entered a restaurant cum bar the somewhat emaciated valet assigned to open the doors for every customer, leaned toward me while opening the glass door, and to my great surprise asked me in a low tone, “You’ll eat something inside?” I stared at him, not facing such a situation ever in my life and asked him, “What?” he repeated his question. Angry now, I told him that I was going to decide after browsing the menu only, and went past him, not courteously.

 

Taking a seat I complained to a waiter about this peculiar behavior. He didn’t look surprised, but assured me he’d talk to him which he did later. I ordered a beer and as I started relishing the cool relief going down my throat I couldn’t help wondering about that valet. I felt sorry for him, standing out there in the heat, God knows for how many hours a day. ‘Maybe, most of the customers enter here just to cool off a little without ordering pricey dishes and thus depriving him of a tip’, I thought. This, in fact, got somewhat confirmed when, paying the bill, I left a tip the waiter told me to give it to the valet outside and that from there the money would be distributed to all of them. I took the note back and went outside. Unfortunately, he was not there, perhaps taking a break for himself. I waited a couple of minutes looking around, and then left sadly.

 

While taking a flight at times, out of absolute necessity, I’ve been observing the airports too, and was always surprised to see a lot of un-uniformed people loitering around, offering help to one and all like the railway porters. And recently, I got a shocker.

 

An elderly lady in perfect health and posture had just got down from a cab at an airport, offloading her baggage. She was traveling alone, apparently. A sickly elderly person approached her immediately, offering help till the boarding is completed for a little over a thousand bucks. The surprised lady was not yet able to decide what to do when the man while arranging a trolley for the baggage unfolded a wheelchair and asked her to occupy it. The lady got very offended and angry now. She stoutly refused and taking hold of her trolley set off for the airport entrance.

 

Desperation and the resultant frustration cum anger is hardly good news for a society. If continued for an indefinite period of time this may lead to violence and crimes. In India, we’ve been helplessly watching violent rivalries, riots in various places on silly excuses, general crimes and crimes against women. Hope the desperation gets a solution fast and the looming uncertainty ends soon. Unfortunately, the epidemiologists are at the moment are debating if the COVID-19 Fourth Wave has hit India or not. 

KK Demise: Bollywood Vs Regional!

There was an ugly kind of mad expression just the day before the Kolkata concert of the famous Bollywood playback singer Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK) who succumbed to a heart attack immediately after that fateful concert, held in a jammed auditorium in extreme humid heat conditions. Due to the lack of space we couldn’t mention it and discuss about this particular madness, obviously a pandemic-induced one to a large extent, in our earlier piece. It came from a well-known Bangla artiste-singer in the form of an enraged expression. He questioned as to who is KK indeed, that why should there be so much craze for such Bollywood singers like him and that there are more talented singers than him available locally in Bengal. No doubt, his comments were condemned in all quarters including the social media. The artiste himself apologized for his behavior and later expressed his terrible shock over the tragedy that followed the concert.

 

However, this kind of ugly conduct cannot be wished away as a one-off thing or as an aberration. Of course, this coming from a Bangla artiste is a bit surprising, because Bengal has a thriving film and music industry that gives ample opportunities to the local singers or playback singers and, from the early ages in Bollywood numerous talented Bangla directors, producers, actors and singers migrated and made it big there, and it’s still in continuation. Our rather unfortunate observation that ‘his comments cannot be wished away…’ is valid in many other states of the country where the respective film and music industries are sluggish and not paying enough to anyone wanting to make a career, barring exceptions, of course.

 

In such a state there’ve always been dissatisfaction, lamentations and rage over the Bollywood artistes coming there and performing to packed auditoriums or stadiums while they just look on helplessly, abandoned as locals without the ‘glamour’ value. Many of us have seen from the sixties at least when local filmmakers go out of the states for music recordings, always preferring Bollywood playback singers to sing for their films even if it involved compromise with the local language. Even now, with high-tech studios coming up almost everywhere the filmmakers do the recordings there, but still prefer famous Hindi playback singers. 

Similarly, local event organizers are always ready to go to any extent to bring in Bollywood singers so that their events become grand successes. Local artists are not considered, because when they’re featured it just becomes a local event, mostly even without ticketing or ways to make money. Only the southern states are the glorious exceptions to this grumpy ‘artistic’ phenomenon because they create their own phenomenal superstars locally and generate the moolahs not just locally, but worldwide.  

 

Well, it’s an established fact that there are thousands of very talented singers all around the country; more now, thanks to the social media and many other digital platforms where they can sing like stars. But everyone cannot make it to the playback singing in Bollywood; forget about making it big there, due to various reasons like lack of enough finances or sponsorship or command over Hindi or lack of connections and kinda godfathers or many others. 

On the other hand, Bollywood thrives on its countrywide or even worldwide acceptance with everything enacted in the national language Hindi that is welcome everywhere except, obviously, in the southern states of India. Thanks to its huge reach Hindi films or songs or actors or singers become immensely popular instantly. And, the local organizers, filmmakers and other professionals vie to get hold of at least a handful of them to make their projects in regional languages look bigger, attractive and more glamorous.

 

The two-year hiatus created by the pandemic has hit the regional artists much more than those in Bollywood, making them frustrated, despondent and angry. Many of them have become like the millions of others who have lost their jobs, sources of income and thus the means of their preferred livelihoods. Therefore, this unfortunate chasm between Bollywood/Hindi vs. Regionals is likely to widen further in a future that is laden with uncertainty, inflation and declining growth of markets. And unfortunately again, we cannot offer any solution to this, because it’s been an issue of creative ventures, preferences and choices. Any kinds of strong regionalism or parochialism can only further the stress within the country.

Disturbing Times: Renewed Madness and the Vicious Circle of the Absurd!

Photo: phrases.org.uk

The Pandemic, at best, seemed only to have kept the madness of the modern age in a tight leash as long as it raged, creating a mortal fear over the whole of humankind. So, once the humans had discovered enough protection against it and succeeded in keeping it at bay, the modern-day madness seems to have come back with renewed vigor—to get back what they’ve lost over the last two years in real quick time. We can hardly pinpoint anyone to put the blame squarely on; because it’s affected almost every section or individual of the society. Coming to India, once the COVID-19 restrictions were completely lifted life’s started becoming more than normal. From the daily wage-earners and the vendors to the topmost business tycoons—almost everyone started showing extreme hurry to get back what they lost. The local admin authorities, also full of human beings only, joined in too; even the most discreet procedures were thrown out of the window. Tragedies, conflicts, absurdities and so on began unfolding very fast, peaking in the last few days while also giving the virus one more chance to come back.

 

Caught perhaps in a pandemic-induced mad frame of mind the new government in Punjab, the CM being a popular artiste, suddenly withdrew the security cover given to one of the state’s most popular singers who had been under threat from different gangs for various reasons. And tragically, the very next day, singer Sidhu Moose Wala was brutally gunned down in his car by gangsters chasing him in another car. Moose Wala was just 28 and had all the prime future ahead of him. To add to his there’s been a string of targeted murders of locals and non-local citizens in Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists whom the experts describe as micro-level operators or a kind of hybrid terrorism. Greatly disturbing tragedies, anyway.

 

As we mentioned at the beginning, even the minimum public safety measures were thrown away, almost everywhere in the country. And another tragedy happened. Kolkata’s humid heat is known to all who’ve experienced it. The 31^st of May 2022 was one such humid day when the heat was sweaty and unbearable even inside homes, under the whirring ceiling fans or even the struggling ACs. And, on that very day a popular playback singer in Hindi and in several south Indian and other languages, Krishnakumar Kunnath (famous as KK) was invited by local organizers in Kolkata to perform in the gloomy evening in one of the city’s premiere auditoriums, Nazrul Mancha.

 

Reports, dismissed as rumors, say the hall was more than packed as there were no restrictions on controlling entry of the extra hundreds of avid audiences, and that the AC was not functioning properly which is not surprising because we find the ACs getting weaker as the attendees get more and more on various occasions. The singer was seen wiping his sweat away and complaining to the organizers frequently. But, as a professional and for the success of the glamour event, he sang for nearly three hours. Then he felt uneasy complaining of chest pain. Surprisingly, he was taken to his hotel, instead of rushing him to the nearest hospital out of sheer common sense. KK collapsed in his hotel room and was declared dead on finally arriving in a hospital. KK, only 53, died of a heart attack as per the postmortem report. But was there nothing that could’ve triggered it in a person who had no previous history of heart problems?

 

Also perhaps severely affected by the post-pandemic madness, one advertising agency in Mumbai released ads on a male deodorant that directly promote the gang-rape theme even as there’ve been reports of rapes and gang-rapes taking place all over the country almost daily. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has promptly suspended the ads ordering those to be taken out of air everywhere. However, the question remains as to how those horrid ads passed layers and layers of the approval procedures. Or perhaps, it clearly pandered to the ‘tastes’ of a great majority of the stakeholders concerned. The same madness to recover what was lost by hook or by crook.

 

As the latest to happen to the continuing saga of greatly disturbing proceedings, one lady spokesperson of the ruling party (BJP) made some adverse remarks to Prophet Muhammad on a public platform yesterday. One more major communal riot unfolded on the streets of Kanpur as a result. The BJP, obviously concerned by the reactions of Qatar and the greater Arab world, suspended her along with one more male spokesperson for giving provocative speeches. The lady said later that she didn’t intend to hurt anyone’s sentiments; she was only pained by the alleged insults to ‘her Lord Shiva’. The other complained of serious threats to his life.

 

And then, the absurd of the absurd! A party that came to power on the strength of its aggressive Hindu nationalism and being condemned as a communal party all the time, the BJP is now accused by some of appeasing the Islamists! Well, we believe in one God or one Creator who may have various forms as per the beliefs of various other religions. We advise people, irrespective of to whatever extent they are being driven by the post-pandemic madness, to desist from fighting for ‘your God’ and ‘our God’ which can only bring us all to the brink, the world making a full circle, probably heading for the End.

 

The megastar Salman Khan today has received a letter threating death to him and his father Salim Khan in the ‘Moose Wala’ way. This could be another ‘vicious circle’ of the singer’s murder involving various probable gangsters of an unknown quantity. While in the US, apart from the mad shootings, there was report of a security issue with President Biden even as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has crossed hundred days.