SOUTHERN COMFORT
LIVELY, ENTERTAINING AND INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING, THE THIRD INDIA TODAY SOUTH CONCLAVE WAS AN AFFAIR TO SAVOUR AND REMEMBER
Seldom does a politician miss an opportunity to showcase what he can do best on home ground. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu did just that at the India Today Conclave South in Visakhapatnam. With the parliamentary election and a simultaneous election to the 175-seat Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly looming large, Naidu went to great lengths to explain how he is forging a formidable front against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cohorts ‘to save democracy and the nation’.
Ditto with Puducherry chief minister V. Narayanasamy. He didn’t miss the chance either to use his wit to good effect. “When she (Kiran Bedi) is not obeying the law herself, but she wants me to abide by it. She wants to do the job of a chowkidar, not the Lieutenant Governor.” BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, a strategist on lien from the RSS to the party, who hails from Rajahmahendravaram, and Jayadev Galla, the dapper MP from Guntur, also fired smart one-liners to enliven the conclave. Like in the previous two editions, the third south conclave too was a vibrant platform that brought together people of divergent persuasions to air their views. While Union minister of state for agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat spoke of how farmers are being offered a better deal than earlier, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Gowda emphasised how the national trading portal eNAM has made life easier for farmers in Karnataka.
In stepping up his ‘Save the Nation’ campaign, Naidu showed willingness to extend a friendly hand towards
political rival K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the chief minister of Telangana. “Who is KCR?” Naidu asked. “He was part of the TDP, a minister in my government. He parted ways. He can always come back. He is welcome. To form a government, an alliance of regional parties will have to take the support of the Congress or the BJP or extend support to one of them. KCR has to make a choice.” Interestingly, KCR is trying to float a Federal Front, an alliance of non-BJP, non-Congress regional parties as an alternative to the mainstream parties.
Naidu, however, was non-committal on the choice of prime ministerial candidate. He said the decision would be taken after the election. “That’s the DMK’s stand,” he remarked, in response to DMK chief M.K. Stalin’s announcement of Rahul Gandhi as the nominee. Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naidu, whose party, the TDP, severed ties with the NDA in April 2018, called him a “total disaster” and a “negative character”, who has destroyed the economy. “This is the worst ever government at the Centre,” he said. He claimed that, as the head of the five-CM panel the central government formed to prepare a road map for the transition to a cashless economy, he had submitted a report saying demonetisation was a bad idea and asked the government not to print denominations higher than Rs 100. “Had Modi been honest about cleaning up the system, he wouldn’t have printed the Rs 2,000 note. Demonetisation was done to win the Uttar Pradesh election;
“When I saw Bombay, I wanted to jump into the screen and be Manisha Koirala” ADITI ROY HYDARI, Actor
the BJP had all the money, the other parties were cashless.”
On being reminded that he too was a staunch Modi supporter once, Naidu said that, like many others in the country, he too believed in Modi’s slogans. “But we all felt cheated by him,” he said. After the 2002 Gujarat riots, Naidu claimed, he had sought Modi’s resignation. “I had told the then PM Vajpayeeji that he had to choose between Gujarat and the nation.” He also accused the Modi government of destroying democratic institutions and misusing power by deploying central agencies such as the CBI, ED and the income tax department to harass political rivals and common citizens.
“The Modi government has no respect for democratic institutions. The RBI governor resigned. People are threatened. Phones are under surveillance,” he said, referring to the recent home ministry order empowering 10 central police agencies to intercept and analyse computer data under the Information Technology Act, 2000. Naidu also made a strong appeal to clean up the electoral process by keeping money out of it. “Why do I have to spend money to win elections? That’s why I asked the government to stop printing notes of higher denominations. But Modi did not listen to me,” Naidu rued. About developing greenfield capital Amaravati for his state, Naidu declared: “History will remember forever what I am building today.”
BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav returned Naidu’s fire on his party’s behalf, saying Naidu’s government was short on development, high on corruption and promoted family rule. “The TDP was born out of an anti-Congress movement. Today, it has joined hands with the Congress and become the other side of the Congress raj,” he said, referring to the party’s plan to ally with the Congress for the 2019 general election. Countering Naidu’s allegation that the BJP was anti-democracy, he said it was Naidu who was running a dictatorial and undemocratic rule in AP. “He doesn’t release the constituency development funds to BJP MLAs,” Madhav said. “He claims he built Hyderabad. But he has not been able to build a single government building in Amaravati, though the Central government had released Rs 3,500 crore.”
The BJP leader also reminded Naidu how, as AP chief minister, he’d meet Modi often in Delhi and say the PM was the future and would remain the leader of the country for several decades to come. “What is more, the AP legislative assembly had passed a resolution praising the Modi government,” Madhav added. Naidu, he said, should have behaved more responsibly and not quit the coalition and was still welcome if he chose to return. “We did not have any problem with Naidu. We maintained our coalition dharma. But Naidu quit because of regional compulsions and then invented excuses to blame us,” Madhav said. Looking ahead, he declared: “Andhra needs to be saved from both. The TDP and YSRC (YSR Congress of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy) are tweedledum and tweedledee.” Ruling out the possibility of allying with YSRC, he said, “The
“The TDP was born out of an anti-Congress movement. Today, it has joined hands with the Congress” RAM MADHAV BJP NATIONAL GENERAL SECRETARY
“Farm loan waiver is not a permanent solution. It’s been given many times. We must see why we have to do it again and again” GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT, MoS for agriculture
question doesn’t arise… he is a corrupt man with so many cases against him.”
Madhav also acknowledged the BJP’s disastrous performance in the Telangana election, but blamed it on a flawed perception of the party. “We should not have done so badly but there was a perception that the TRS and BJP were together. This went in favour of the TRS and hurt us,” the BJP general secretary claimed.
Asked about the recent defeats in the five assembly polls, Madhav said the BJP had begun introspection on the possible reasons, particularly in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. He declined to share the party’s strategy for 2019 but dropped hints of a probable alliance with the AIADMK. “In Tamil Nadu, we’ll have a formidable alliance,” he said, adding that the DMK already has a proposed alliance with the Congress. Did it mean the BJP would go with the AIADMK as that was the other formidable force in the state? Madhav refused to divulge any details.
To reinvent the South, B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, founder and executive chairman, Cyient, recommended nurturing the talent pool and enhancing the degree of skilling to retain the competitive edge. Dr Sandeep Sancheti, chairman, Association of Indian Universities, concurred.
Discussing the farm crisis, both MoS for agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ra-
“We have not even scratched the basics of the (#MeToo) issue; we have to bring out as many stories as possible” PADMAPRIYA JANAKIRAMAN ACTOR
jeev Gowda agreed that the practice of announcing sops to lure voters was proving detrimental to the long-term interests of farmers.
On the future of voting, M.M. Pallam Raju, the former Union minister for Human Resource Development, and party spokespersons Krishna Sagar Rao (BJP) and Khushbu Sundar (Congress) underlined how identity politics often pips development in the race to lure the Indian voter.
Suraj Yengde, a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University, launched an impassioned attack on the political class in the session, ‘The Rage Within: Where is Ambedkar’s Ethos?’: “Politicians don’t treat Dalits as humans, but as vote banks. Since Independence, caste has been central to the formation of India’s Republic. The first five cabinets of the central governments had no Adivasi leader in it.” No one had an answer to his fierce diatribe.
In yet another provocative session, ‘The Southern Bastion: Who Will Breach It?’, TDP MP Jayadev Galla reasoned that the BJP has failed his state more than the Congress and, therefore, it is seen as the real enemy. “Unless the middle class goes out to vote, the corruption in the polling process will continue,” he asserted.
The ‘Vote on 2019’ sessions for Karnataka and AP had the participants staking claims and counter-claims, whether it was Congress MP Nasir Hussain, JD(S) spokesperson Tanveer Ahmed and the BJP’s Malavika Avinash for Karnataka, or former Union minister Umareddy Venkateswarlu of YSRC and TDP MP C.M. Ramesh.
Veteran cricketer V.V.S. Laxman recalled India’s triumph at the iconic Eden Gardens against Australia in 2001 where his sensational knock of 281 soon became part of cricketing folklore. “281 is an unlucky number for me but I am glad India won that Test,” he said, predicting that India will win the current series against the Aussies 3-1.
In the session titled ‘Working across Cultures: Blurring Boundaries’, actor Aditi Rao Hydari declared, “I believe magic really happens. If you’re positive and give out good energy, you get it back.” Accidental superstar Arvind Swami, who disappeared after Mani Ratnam films Roja and Bombay and is now set to return again in a Ratnam movie, was the ideal choice of speaker for the session ‘Life in Two Acts: the Real and Reel’. He was not prepared for stardom, Swami said. “I wanted to do things outside movies; that’s when I took a break.” In an equally insightful session ‘The
“The biggest change has come from the audience. They are exposed to many things thanks to YouTube. Filmmaking too is now accessible” ARVIND SWAMI Actor
“It is very easy to do an independent film in the Tamil film structure. It is not as studio-based as Bollywood; it is easier for innovation in Tamil and Malayalam cinema” YAMI GAUTAM Actor
Self in Cinema: Articulating the Anger’, director Pa. Ranjith said caste prejudice remains a pernicious reality of Indian cinema. In the session, ‘Bollywood/Tollywood: Remakes and Reinventions’, actor Yami Gautam and director R.S. Prasanna recounted their crossover experience in regional cinema.
Architect Raseel Gujral, participating in the session, ‘The Design Aesthetic: Modernity Meets Tradition’, said, “I never felt intimidated by my father’s legacy. I felt inspired. I can never be Satish Gujral. I don’t want to be.”
‘Incredible India: Putting it on the World Map’ had Apurva Verma, additional chief secretary, tourism, Tamil Nadu, put in a word for ‘Enchanting Tamil Nadu’. “If things go as planned,” he said, “you will soon be able to exploit religious destinations in the state and Sri Lanka under a specially designed Ram circuit for tourists.”
‘The Poisoned State: Clearing the Air’ session provided a platform for conservationists and activists Nityanand Jayaraman, Vishwanath Srikantaiah and Amrit Rao to highlight how despite some initiatives, we are just not equal to environmental challenges. “The five-year cycle of political mobilisation vis-a-vis the longer 25-30-year one of environmental change is not in sync,” Srikantaiah said.
Tamil rapper Blaaze and musician Paul Jacobs set up an illuminating session of ‘When Cultures Rap: Where Language is No Barrier’, demonstrating how rap has become a non-confrontational way to articulate social injustice.
The ‘Right to Pray: Faith on Fire’ session addressed the ongoing Sabarimala controversy, with participants speaking for and against the entry of women into the shrine. Should religious belief/ practice take precedence over the law of the land? That question was not going to be settled at this conclave.
The concluding session, titled ‘Stale. Male. Fail. From #MeToo to #WeToo’, had actors Rakul Preet Singh, Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar and Padmapriya Janakiraman join author-journalist Sandhya Menon and Father Augustine Vattoli, convenor, Save Our Sisters Action Council. “The way women are treated is a true reflection of the state of society and civilisation in any century,” Fr Vattoli said. Given that the clergy too is not immune to the malaise, his words need to be heeded.
“Strangely, the 281 at Eden Gardens did not change my life, the 167 at SCG against Australia did; that was my first Test hundred” V.V.S. LAXMAN Cricketer