Author: P. Venugopal

‘Cover Your Private Parts’: Pune’s Pride March Was Diverse, But With Terms & Conditions

I write this not to compare or criticise the Pune Pride, because every pride is also marked by the socio-political current of the city in which it takes place.

On June 2, the Pune Pride Committee, set up by the Sampathik Trust, organised the city’s ninth pride march.

Kickstarting this year’s pride month, the walk began from Sambhaji Park covering Cafe Goodluck Square, Fergusson College road, and culminated at the park around 12:30pm.

Bustling with 800 participants, the pride walk came with a list of rules which were updated on the walk’s Facebook event page:

“Requesting participants to cover their breasts and private parts while dressing. Any political party/caste/ religion/ history character based banners, flags, hoarding, shouting, slogans will not be entertained. Indradhanu Pune pride committee holds all the final rights of pulling down any objectionable content, if observed during the pride walk.”

I talked to a few participants, allies, and members of the community to get an insight into this rule and what it might imply for the politics of the LGBTQ+ community.

Divided opinion on the rule

Sarang Punekar, a transgender person, who was attending the Pune Pride for the third time, when asked about the rule, called it a “manifestation of the patriarchal grip we are controlled by.”

Punekar added: “if I want to wear a bikini I should be able to, but that won’t happen here because of the patriarchal rules and regulations that govern the space of the pride.”

They said they want to scream, “we want freedom!” like Kanhaiya Kumar but the pride is limited to slogans like “I am gay, that’s okay,” “I am Hijra, that’s okay”.

Pune Pride March 2019. Image credit: Shubhangani Jain.

According to a gay man, Abhilash, the rule of not bringing your caste/religion/community into the pride movement means making the space of the pride free of conflicts arising out of tensions on communal or caste lines.

Abhilash extended his gratitude to the Supreme Court for striking down Section 377 last year and said that for him, pride means being able to express their feelings and identities in the public with people they call their own.

When I asked him about the rule that might hinder this freedom of expression, he stressed on avoiding ideological conflicts that might come up if the participants wear their caste and religious identities on their sleeves.

“We [the community] are also discriminated against caste and class lines but why should we bring it here (pride)?,” he asked. The focus is on the stigma and discrimination faced by the community.

Also read: A Queer Take on the Idea of ‘Pride’ in India

Alka Pawangadkar, the coordinator of Stree Mukti Sanghatna, who was attending the Pune Pride for the third time, came to extend her solidarity to those “who need recognition, support, and strength”.

Regarding the rule, she said, she’d have liked to see people from different communities speaking various languages “exhibit” their identities through banners and slogans so that society understands that the community is very much part of it.

When I asked her about bringing in intersectionality into our prides like we do in women’s movements, she says, “Othering is so easy and these are toddler steps for the community,” which – with course of time – they will pay heed to.

Not the first time

In 2017, Samapathik Trust’s founder, Bindumadhav Khire put up similar rules inviting immense backlash from people, who went as far as boycotting the pride. The rule mentioned on the Facebook event page said, “NO Dhol-Tasha, No Dancing! NO Political or Religious Slogans or Posters! Wear Decent Clothing Only and Behave well!”

Khire said he made the rules to save the community from embarrassment since parents of LGBTQIA+ youth will also be attending the pride.

This writer interviewed Omkar Joshi, one of the members of the Indradhanu organising committee to understand their reasons for having similar rules.

Pune Pride March 2019. Image credit: Shubhangani Jain.

Omkar, who volunteered to be part of the pride organising committee, said they didn’t have anything against any community, but that they work actively on LGBTQIA+ issues which is why they wanted to focus on them solely. “Humari community mein sabhi dharm aur jaati ke log hain, discrimination nahi hona chahiye (our community has people coming from all religions, castes. We didn’t want to discriminate against any of them)” he said.

On the rule of covering private parts, he said that adhering to societal norms of morality in clothing is important for the community too. Because parents of the LGBTQIA+ folks also attend the pride, the image of the community should be good. Omkar also mentioned how pride means bringing your sexuality into the public and keeping one’s religion and caste identities at home.

The focus is on queerness, not so much on intersectionality.

Idea of inclusivity within LGBTQIA+ community

I went to the Mumbai Pride earlier this year and observed some differences. People held banners of being pansexual, asexual, queer Muslim, Dalit queer, among others.

A variety of slogans echoed like, “Rohith tere sapnon ko hum mazil tak pahuchaayenge! (Rohith, we’ll make your dream come true!),” “Don’t Assume Your Kids are Straight!” and so on. The space was coloured, like the rainbow, in hues of difference which came together in a space of pride.

Also read: Mumbai Pride 2019: The Revolution is Here, And it’s Rainbow and Intersectional

I write this not to compare or criticise the Pune Pride, because every pride – in being a political resistance to a violently heteronormative society – is also marked by the socio-political current of the city in which it takes place.

This makes me probe the question of how diversity, inclusion, intersectionality and our varied understandings of them manifest in pride marches across the world.

Now that heterosexual men are planning to organise a “straight pride parade” in Boston, and our vocabulary of queerness has expanded, this question seems to have some bearing.

It is interesting to note how the space of the pride that is itself segregated on various class, gender, caste and religious markers becomes a whole that sometimes represents and reproduces these very markers under the banner of diversity and inclusivity.

Shubhangani Jain is in her final year of masters studying gender/power. She is a pop-culture and panipuri enthusiast. 

Featured image credit: Twitter

Mumbai Pride 2019: The Revolution is Here, And it’s Rainbow and Intersectional

It’s going to be a fight if we want substantive equality. But I, for one, am hopeful that we’ll make it.

Coalition work is not work that is done in your home. Coalition work has to be done in the streets. And it is some of the most dangerous works you can do.
~Bernice Johnson Reagon

Reagon’s concept of ‘coalition politics’ talks about the dangerous, often underrated, task of coalescing for a cause. Underrated, because it requires engaging with differences instead of burying them, thus stifling the possibility of a revolution. Because that’s what happens when you created closed rooms filled with people similar to yourself. The comfort provided by your shared privileges/capital prevents you from engaging with differences – crucial to challenge your politics.

Movements happen when we do the difficult task of getting on the streets with our vulnerabilities, our strengths, our differences and have a dialogue about our politics with other participants.

And get on the streets, literally and figuratively, is what we did at Mumbai’s 11th pride march on February 2 – with our heads and hearts aligned towards each other, recognising the coalitions built over decades of relentless activism, and celebrating the spirit and labour of the process that coalition-making is.

Mumbai pride march. Credit: Shubhangani and Daranee Thongsiri

Last year’s Supreme Court judgment, when Section 377, criminalising sexual activities between consenting adults of the same sex (termed as being against the order of nature), was quashed, paved the way for this year’s theme, Pride For All. Accounting for not only the strenuous efforts of the LGBTQ+ community and allies towards the legal victory but also for intersectionality within the community.

Also read: Section 377 Verdict: An Ode to Love, Equality and Freedom

The march, led by Queer Azaadi Mumbai (QAM) which is a collective of organisations and individuals voluntarily working for LGBTQ+ rights, chose August Kranti Maidan as the assembly point for this year – which was saffroned by flyers from the ruling party, BJP, for a rally scheduled for the following day.

The party’s unnerving silence and sometimes outright rejection of the LGBTQ+ community, made the rainbow and saffron mix an ironical sight for marchers.

Led by a giant pride flag and QAM banner, the march commenced at 4pm, and with the help of police and QAM volunteers taking care of the traffic, rainbow-ed its way to Opera House, Kennedy Bridge and back to August Kranti Maidan, where we parted for several post-pride parties with hopes of an inclusive, rights affirming future expressed with the collective singing of ‘Hum honge kaamyaab, ek din’ (We shall overcome someday).

Also read: I Am so Gay Today: On Coming Out of the Closet

This year’s pride, claimed to have had the largest number of attendees in the city’s pride march history. In addition to observing a sense of accomplishment, there was a list of demands compiled by QAM, which were vocalised before and after the march.

One of the demands was to have the revised (yet inaccurate) Transgender Persons’ (Protection of Rights) Bill conform to the 2014 NALSA judgment.

Mumbai pride march. Credit: Shubhangani and Daranee Thongsiri

 

Also read: Here’s Why the Transgender Community is Angry About This New Bill

And with Section 377 gone, legal and social demands for protection of queer and trans folks from violence and discrimination, of adoption, inheritance, marriage, were proposed. Pride marches, we should not forget, are as much a celebration as they are a public protest against power-based hierarchies, and these demands are a proof of how much work has to be done still.

The slogans and posters were delightful this year. “Ye jawaani Gay deewani,” “Pride Over Prejudice,” “Don’t Assume, Just Ask”. Some posters like “meri behen, les-behen,” “Pan Guin”, took word-play to another level.

Mumbai pride march. Credit: Shubhangani and Daranee Thongsiri

 

The rhythmic chants of “One, Two, Three, Four…Open Up the Closet Door, Five, Six, Seven, Eight…Don’t Assume Your Kids Are Straight!” were supplemented by “Rohith tere sapnon ko, hum manzil tak pahuchaayenge!”

And this, I think, was the beauty and courage of this year’s pride. Brimming with voices across the spectrum and along the intersections of gender, caste, religion, ethnicity; Mumbai’s Pride goers really acknowledged this year’s theme. Queer folks who were Muslim, Christian, Bahujan, raised banners and slogans directed others towards the need for adopting an intersectional lens when discussing gender and power.

 

Mumbai pride march. Credit: Shubhangani and Daranee Thongsiri

Identities and power are central components of all politics, and to have more people acquainted with the multiple axes of oppression on which power operates, is a requirement for building an inclusive and humane politics.

 

Also read: Here’s What It Took To Organise Bhubaneswar’s First Pride

But the road to inclusivity and equality is not a linear one. On one hand, Mumbai pride resonated with the hope of furthering intersectional politics, on the other, the anxieties over the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and the elected government’s approach towards the rights of the community, remain.

Mumbai pride march. Credit: Shubhangani and Daranee Thongsiri

Whether it’s BJP members claiming queerness is against Hindutva and needs a “cure”, or the silence of both the Congress and BJP over issues concerning the community, it’s going to be a fight for substantive equality.

I, for one, am hopeful after attending Mumbai’s first pride, because the revolution, my friends, is here and it is rainbow and intersectional!

Shubhangani Jain is in her final year of masters studying gender/power. She is a pop-culture and panipuri enthusiast. 

Featured image credit: Shubhangani and Daranee Thongsiri

English: The Language I Yearn(ed) to Learn

There is no harm to speak with all the hurt, the brokeness, the lisps, the slips, because that is how I learn this language, that is how I make it my own.

As an 8-year-old kid, I remember, a little too clearly, my mother fretting over my sentences jumping over each other,
Grammar, a dangerous territory which she dare not trespass, for I would cry at my inability to rote learn its mechanics,
I remember her excusing herself to the bathroom to cry
because the only thing she wanted was for me to speak like I knew English
better than the Hindi we communicated in daily,
The stable future of our middle class-ness resting on my immaculately framed responses to “How are you?” and “Introduce yourself in English”,
On the impressed faces of uncles and aunts who’d crowd me to assess my English-medium education,
And that sigh of relief when they heard not even one skip, not one blur in my language.

It took years of PTA meetings to assure my father, whose first question was about my language,
Several more for me to use English like my ‘Indian’ tongue was its second home,
And I still feel like I am adapting myself to it,
Convoluting my tongue to spell sentences that sometimes slip on themselves,
Picking them up,
Brushing them to check for bruises,
And apologising for the hurt that my accent might have caused.

Yesterday a girl as old as me,
With volumes of struggle in all her bones,
Told me how she was called a ‘savage’ in this language she was trying so hard to befriend,
She told me how she went to her room and picked up a dictionary to check what the word meant,
And how, on realising the meaning she first felt confusion and anger,
But not because of being called savage with a mouth so foreign to her ear,
But that it was in a language so foreign to her mouth that its lexicon just won’t settle on her tongue, no matter how many cushions she pads it with,
And second, she resolved to rinse her mouth with all of English’s words to make the language less bitter on her tongue,
To use ‘their’ language as an armour against the world that prides itself on the mere repetition of words.

She recites some sentences for me,
Trying to navigate the harshness of potential flinches to her broken English,
And I, I feel honey rushing through my own veins,
The same ones which were once coated with the same hunger for this unyielding language.
I see my younger self in her:
Afraid to be interrupted, scared to be laughed at, but most importantly desperate to pronounce these alienating words like they had just been waiting for me to use them.

So when she completes her speech and looks at me for approval, scared,
I tell her she doesn’t need any.
That her language is so full, so complete,
She shouldn’t ever make her grammar a check-list for people to judge her on,
I tell her that it is time for her to own her way of speaking,
And not being afraid of being called a savage because someone thinks her English is broken.
Or that her English is not ‘English’ enough.
Because who are they to decide how much English she requires to mend her tongue?

I tell her all of this and realise how many years it took for me to understand that cutting my syllables down,
And speaking like my fellow English-educated classmates, who’d only make fun of my lack of expression,
Was a part of feeling like I did not belong.
I tell her how much it took to burn the seemingly never-ending bridge between my grasp of English and its allowance,
And how even today a slight lisp never fails to bring the childhood anxiety along with itself.
I tell her all of this to maybe reassure myself that there is no harm to speak with all the hurt,
The brokeness,
The lisps, the slips,
Because that is how I learn this language, that is how I make it my own.

The World of Architecture Should Embrace the Avant-Garde, as This Year’s Pritzker Prize Has

For a long time, it has been the same kind of loud, eye-catching architecture that is deemed iconic. Thankfully, that is changing.

For a long time, it has been the same kind of loud, eye-catching architecture that is deemed iconic. Thankfully, that is changing.

Les Cols Restaurant Marquee 2011 Olot, Girona, Spain designed by Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta. Credit: Hisao Suzuki

Les Cols Restaurant Marquee 2011 Olot, Girona, Spain designed by Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta. Credit: Hisao Suzuki

Encouraging plural perceptions about iconic and avant-garde works of architecture may safeguard the architectural discourse and many contemporary architectural practices from the risk of being influenced by a singular worldview. Magazines and journals of architecture have a critical role to play in this regard. This year’s prestigious Pritzker prize, the Nobel’s equivalent in the field of architecture, upholds the value of collaborative practice and promotes plural world views about the nature of architectural productions. Pictures of Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta’s architectural productions reveal a certain calm countenance and sobriety in their work, blended fluently with the natural landscape of a place. The Pritzker recognition bestowed on this team of architects for their beautiful yet subtle work is a welcome relief for a profession which in the recent past has witnessed a celebration of eye-catching, self-referential and startling buildings exclusively as iconic works by the international architectural print media. The singular promotion of such work by the media seems to have adversely impacted potential plural notions about the content and character of iconic works of architecture. If quintessential avant-garde works mark shifts in a discourse, this year’s Pritzker seems to have certainly identified one.

In many ways, Laurie Baker’s work in the Indian subcontinent too qualifies this description. His practice engaged holistically with the climatic, cultural and community context, even as it questioned the disconnect between architect, artefact, building process, place and cultural milieu. Baker’s work was also at once about an affordable aesthetic, much-needed restraint and austerity in a rapidly-depleting resource context. Many of his public buildings, like the India Coffee House, the Centre for Development Studies or the beautiful Loyola Chapel designed with jewels of light, are iconic buildings in their own right. Similarly, Charles Correa’s design of Sabarmati ashram can be considered an iconic statement in the architecture of tranquility. High-density urbanisation is not the only scenario against which a range of practices in diverse contexts are to be ticked off for their relevance and merit. While Maya Lin’s avant-garde landscapes are deeply rooted in the metaphysical, Le Corbusier’s radical housing proposals for Paris qualify the rare distinction of being located in a vision of city building. In as much as Santiago Calatrava’s works are landmarks, so are Glenn Mercut’s in the landscape of the discourse of architecture. Such works are not deliberately tall or horizontal, angular, curvilinear, twisted, skewed or straight. Yet they are brilliant works in their own right and in no way are less potent instruments to have impacted the discourse of architecture. All architectural productions with deep and meaningful content of course enrich the discourse. However, it is a matter of concern when they tend to be guided merely by the pursuit of visual iconicity as the goal, relegating the holistic content that should inform their making.

The persistence of this paradigm is one of the triggers for the emergence of avant-garde works. The latter, in turn, become the object of criticism and inquiry in a continuous process, which is of course healthy for any discourse. However, as works of architecture get into the realm of print and visual media, they seemingly gain an aura of authenticity which dulls critical perception. This in turn sets in motion the perpetuation of singular world views, consuming what is produced and reproducing the same continuously, building a world of consent and similarity. Such a process will impact architectural productions from being informed by rich diversity of thought and a range of creative possibilities. This stifles the spirit of unrestrained inquiry which should aid the construct of the discipline and its future. Architectural practices that thrive through branding, however radical their works may be, are perhaps the most vulnerable to this self-destructive phenomenon which thwarts innovation. Much to the chagrin of such practices, the critic as an outsider questions this process and may aide in correcting the course or stands the risk of being shouted down.

The need for promoting plural notions about iconic and avant-garde works of architecture is urgent and pertinent. If anything, the responsibility of the architectural print and visual media is to highlight a diverse range of architectural practices and the values that guide their making. Given their reach and impact on emerging practices, and on the student community in particular, the gravity of such responsibility is very high. Magazines and journals of architecture could also dedicate sufficient space and encourage criticism informed by inquiry of the political, cultural and economic context in which architectural productions are located, in contrast to presenting the latter merely as isolated sculptures and impressive images. Though creative work thrives in a space nurtured by freedom, the discourse of architecture with its social responsibility and cultural significance needs to be tempered by unqualified, rigorous, meaningful and persistent criticism to promote diverse worldviews befitting the domain.

P. Venugopal is an architect and urban designer running a studio practice in Hyderabad for over 25 years. He also writes about architecture and cities, besides teaching as visiting faculty in local schools of architecture. He can be reached at tdc_architect@rediffmail.com

Designing Amaravati Needs Expert Guidance and an Inclusive Framework, Not Baahubali-like Fantasies

Planning and building a capital city is of great cultural and ecological significance, which calls for enormous patience, long-term vision and due consultation with master architects, experts and other stakeholders.

Planning and building a capital city is of great cultural and ecological significance, which calls for enormous patience, long-term vision and due consultation with master architects, experts and other stakeholders.

An aerial view of Maki's master plan for Amaravati. Credit: amaravati.gov.in

An aerial view of Fumihiko Maki’s master plan for Amaravati’s government complex. Source: amaravati.gov.in

The recent invitation extended by the Andhra Pradesh government to a leading Telugu film director to participate in the city building process of its new capital Amaravati may be seen as a pointer to the former’s anxious search for a spectacular city that in its appearance and makeup will reflect the rich history and culture of the state. While its benign intentions may not be suspect, and involving artistes, writers, historians or social scientists in the process is much needed and welcome, the trajectory of the government’s current thinking seemingly blurs the distinction between fantastic imagery and architecture. Frequent changes and detours in the government’s decisions are a matter of serious concern. Capital city building calls for an inclusive framework of working with experts guided by mature capabilities for synthesis achieved through dignified architecture. Of immense importance is the very process of capital city building – sound institutional mechanisms right at the inception that are likely to substantially determine its future.

Great cities like Hampi and Fatehpur Sikri, structures of architectural design excellence such as the Nest Stadium built for the Beijing Olympics, Sri Lanka’s beautiful parliament complex and a Reichstag in Germany, are testimonies to the outstanding and lasting contributions of master architects, while also reflecting the breadth of vision, political will and aesthetic and cultural sensibilities of their patrons. The need for the latter and to gain from masterly expertise continues to be pertinent to those at the helm impacting city building across our country and is of utmost relevance to the Andhra Pradesh government aspiring to build its greenfield capital city, Amaravati. After all, masterpieces in art and architecture serve as cultural anchors, icons and symbols of reassuring pride, and hope for the societies that produce them, even as they enrich and ennoble everyday life. The role of master architects, artists and craftsman hence is ever invaluable.

In what perhaps was a glimmer of promise, the state’s Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) had earlier this year invited master architects and Padmashri recipient Balakrishna Doshi, Fumihiko Maki from Japan and Richard Rogers from the UK, both winners of the prestigious Pritzker Prize, considered architecture’s Nobel, to participate in an invite-only international competition to develop a master plan for the proposed 900-acre capitol complex precinct and conceptual designs for prestigious structures like the assembly, high court, secretariat and other mission buildings. Doshi, Maki and Rogers have not only had a prolific track record of producing outstanding and dignified works of public architecture but also developed their distinct philosophy and thinking over several decades with significant contributions to the advancement of architecture and urbanism in their respective countries.

The legislature building Maki planned for Maravati. Source: amaravati.gov.in

The legislature building Maki planned for Amravati. Source: amaravati.gov.in

Against tight deadlines, the three master architects presented their vision and ideas, large-scale drawings, artist’s impressions and models to an eminent jury team headed by another renowned architect, Christopher Beninger, who is the recipient of the American Institute of Architects’ award, among others, with an accomplished record of having dealt with several prestigious commissions. The jury adjudged Maki’s proposals in the first position and has reportedly presented a detailed technical report to CRDA. All proposals were later made public. But this is now history and seems ever so.

Against this backdrop, the Andhra Pradesh government’s recent decision to call for fresh tenders all over again to appoint a new master architect and not engage Maki and his associates is a matter for review. The move reflects some trepidation in the government’s decision-making processes and may convey an image of the government having relegated due processes. This, in turn, is likely to dent its credibility amongst the professional fraternity, particularly thwarting the prospect of gaining from the expertise of all the master architects who participated in the competition and others of their ilk. It is not clear what technical reasons or predicaments otherwise would have pushed the government to take such a decision. The selection of a new master architect notwithstanding, it would immensely benefit the process and would only be pertinent for the government to make the jury’s report on the international competition entries public, highlighting all the technical merits and demerits of the winning proposal and those submitted by other master architects so as to learn from them, avoid circuitous processes and potential pitfalls, if any.

Fumihiko Maki. Source: amaravati.gov.in

Fumihiko Maki. Source: amaravati.gov.in

While certain aspects of Maki’s conceptual proposals (the appearance of the assembly building in particular) did receive public criticism, it is not clear if the state government did solicit improvements in design from the master architect for further evaluation and if the latter responded well. After all, even the designs of an ordinary residence go through much iteration to suit the needs of their owners. This would perhaps have helped in setting a healthy precedent in upholding the integrity of institutional procedures, critical to soliciting long-term good will, confidence and support from many quarters, as also in culling maximum gain from the merits of the shortlisted proposal.

Building an inclusive and collaborative framework

The government could still invite all the master architects and the eminent jury who participated in the international competition process to form a capitol complex advisory or may still choose to forge a unique collaborative engagement amongst them to set high benchmarks in the quality of design and construction of important civic structures right at inception. It could still floated a design ideas competition with inclusive prequalification norms for other mission buildings with these master architects and other eminent experts from our country as jury. While these options may not be exhaustive or the most appropriate, and while it is the prerogative of the state government to call off any tender or to float new ones, given the magnitude, significance and serious technical nature of the work, it will be prudent for the government to build an inclusive model of working with these master architects over a sustained duration and benefit best from their precious expertise instead of losing them. Their rich experience may also be utilised to solicit opinions regarding urban development of the state. The idea is to make the most of some of the leading and best minds in the industry.

Endeavours like capital-city building must be guided by robust and ethically well-grounded institutional processes which are inclusive and make the best of masterly expertise rather than those of exclusion and elimination, transcending dry contractual procedures and norms. While there can be a broad master plan for the precinct that can be agreed upon, which in itself must be deemed to be dynamic and open to modifications and improvements, the complexity of urban issues at hand and the challenges they pose demand collaborative work rendering the idea of a selecting a single architect and a frozen master plan or design almost archaic. Such an approach will only enable the state to benefit from the rich diversity of contemporary ideas in city building pitched against a framework of common design guidelines.

Legislature and high court overlooking the Krishna river in Maki's plans. Source: amaravati.gov.in

Legislature and high court overlooking the Krishna river in Maki’s plans for Amaravati. Source: amaravati.gov.in

Be that as it may, occasional references earlier in the news of government teams touring cities like Astana perhaps to consider it as a model, a garish and expensive enterprise built with petro dollars and one that’s inappropriate to our cultural and climatic context, is a matter of serious concern. It also seems that the government may be inclined towards proposals imitating ancient Greek or Roman structures, or from the recent events reported in the news, towards fantastic, surreal images of mythical cities which would not only be out of place, but disconnected from ground realities, outdated and anachronistic. One can only hope and pray that an enterprise of such cultural significance which calls for creating structures of stately dignity and poise, elegance and state-of-the-art technical and engineering excellence informed by high sensitivity to the local context is not reduced to commercial and theatrical fetish.

Further, having decided to build its greenfield capital city by the fertile banks of river Krishna and acquired land, the state’s vision in building the city and its region should primarily be informed by contemporary design models in sustainable urbanism. In view of the ensuing rapid urbanisation and transformation of an agrarian landscape this initiative will trigger, the enterprise should aim at minimising its environmental damage and ecological footprint in as much as aiming for visual iconicity. Such a vision should also be guided by concerns pertaining to social inclusion, cultural and climatic appropriateness, and energy conservation, while minimising cost to the public exchequer.

The efforts of the state government notwithstanding, the need of the hour is to pause, set up a master architects expert committee and benefit from meaningful advice and informed strategy while recognising the serious technical nature of the subject and its lasting cultural significance. The decisions should be guided by restraint, introspection of objectives, respecting merit and institutional mechanisms, making best use of the renowned master architects and learning to work with them, while also doing away with impossible and injuriously short time targets which have not been of much avail.

The value of endeavours like building a capital city is also for posterity, built at a great cost to public resources and our commons. This calls for a broader horizon of thinking, unfettered by populist political expediency. Given the far-reaching social, economic, ecological and resource implications such projects trigger, it’s high time that the government of India considers setting up an inclusive expert advisory panel drawn from various domains to support states undertaking projects of such dimensions, for what is of concern is the future of Indian cities and our environment.

P. Venugopal is a senior architect and urban designer based in Hyderabad.

In Kerala bypoll, a Boost for Chandy, and for BJP too

The Congress candidate won but both the UDF and LDF have seen their vote share erode as the BJP makes spectacular gains

File photo of Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy. PTI Photo by Shahbaz Khan

File photo of Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy. PTI Photo by Shahbaz Khan

Thiruvananthapuram: The Bharatiya Janata Party appears to be emerging as a force to reckon with in Kerala – a state it has yet to win an Assembly or Lok Sabha seat in – garnering 34,145 votes in the by-election to the Aruvikkara Assembly constituency, the result of which was announced on Tuesday.

The Congress candidate K.S. Sabarinath, contesting under the banner of the United Democratic Front (UDF), retained the seat for the front polling, 56,448 votes, while M. Vijayamukar of the CIPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) came second with 46,320 votes.

The by-poll was dubbed a referendum on the last four years of the UDF government led by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The victory of the Congress candidate, son of former Assembly Speaker G. Karthikeyan, whose death in March this year had led to the by-poll, is thus a personal victory for the CM.

The most significant aspect of the result, however, is the progress registered by the BJP in this constituency since the last Assembly election four years ago and the Lok Sabha election a year ago. In the 2011 Assembly election, it had won only around 7,000 votes, while in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections it polled around 15,000 votes in the relevant segment (which falls under the Attingal Lok Sabha constituency). Thus, party candidate O. Rajagopal’s performance this time is nothing short of spectacular.

The UDF’s vote share came down from 48.78 per cent to 39.6 between 2011 and 2015 and the LDF’s from 39.61 per cent to 32.50 per cent. The BJP’s vote share, however, increased dramatically from 6.61 per cent to 23.96 per cent. Both coalitions have clearly come in for serious vote erosion to the benefit of the BJP.

“The result shows we are emerging as the single largest party in the state,” claimed BJP State president V. Muralidharan, “because we contest the election alone, while both the UDF and the LDF are multi-party coalitions. He said Rajagopal’s candidature too had mattered.

The UDF has weathered controversy after controversy during the past four years and there is even a group within the party wishing for a leadership change. A strengthened Chandy, however, said the result had exposed the hollowness of all the graft charges the LDF had been levelling against his government.

The CPI(M) leadership dismissed the setback as a development that was not indicative of the mood of the electorate in the state as a whole. Party State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said “anti-government votes had split”, facilitating a UDF victory.

Kerala will go in for local body elections later this year and Assembly elections are due in May 2016. The by-poll result strengthen’s the Chief Minister’s position within the UDF and makes him the favourite to lead the UDF in the next Assembly elections. It also throws up new worries to the LDF.

Remembering Rajan, the Innocent Victim of Brutal Emergency Excesses

An engineering student was picked up, tortured and killed by the Kerala police even though there was no evidence against him

It was one of the most notorious cases of the Emergency and became a byword for police brutality in Kerala and excesses in general. It became the subject of books and even a film, Piravi by Shaji Karun. The case of P. Rajan — an engineering student who was picked up by the police for a crime in which it was easily verifiable he had no role and then tortured and killed showed the depths of State brutality during a period when civil liberties were suspended and the media was censored.

It was the long and lonely struggle of T.V. Eachara Warrier — Rajan’s father — that brought out the truth behind his son’s disappearance after he was taken away by the police on March 1, 1976.

P. Rajan. Source: Venugopal Unninathan

P. Rajan. Source: Venugopal Unninathan

Rajan’s body was never found. But his father’s spirit was so unrelenting in the pursuit of truth that, although the police denied all through having taken the youth into custody, the High Court of Kerala, in its order in April 1977 in a habeas corpus petition filed by him, said there was sufficient evidence before it to believe that this indeed had happened.

“Why are you making my innocent child stand in the rain even after his death? I don’t close the door. Let the rain lash inside and drench me. Let at least my invisible son know that his father never shut the door,” Warrier, a retired Hindi professor, writes in his book, ‘Memories of a Father’, describing why he could not give up his struggle until the police admitted they had killed his son.

Civic Chandran was among the detainees at the Kakkayam torture camp with Rajan. Apparently, Rajan just did not survive the torture. Warrier, in his book, says his son was with a youth festival team from the college the night the Naxalites attacked a rural police station (at Kayanna, in Kozhikode district), taking away a rifle and causing some vandalism. This fact was easily verifiable from the other students in the team. It was on suspicion of his involvement in this attack on February 28, 1976, that he was taken into custody by the police on March 1. The arrest occurred in the front yard of the Regional Engineering College (which is now a National Institute of Technology) at Chathamangalam, in Kozhikode district. He was stepping out of the college bus bringing back students who had participated in an inter-collegiate youth festival in another college, located about 40 km away, when they took him.

T.V. Eachara Warrier. Source: Venugopal Unninathan

T.V. Eachara Warrier. Source: Venugopal Unninathan

“They just took him, tortured him and killed him. That was all that happened. Somebody gave the police a list and they picked up people from that list,” says Warrier in his book.

The 1977 elections and the lifting of the Emergency witnessed the Congress-led coalition virtually sweeping the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Kerala, in stark contrast to the anti-Emergency rout the Congress suffered in the nation as a whole. “We in Kerala have never been politically literate,” says writer, political analyst and a former Naxalite, Civic Chandran, who was among those put in ‘Hitler-like concentration camps’ by the government during the Emergency days.

According to another former Naxalite leader K. Venu, hardly anything about the excesses that were going on in the State in the name of Emergency reached the general public because of a total censorship of the media to which the media succumbed without much resistance. He narrates a story about how, while he was hiding from the police, he had gone to the then Deshabhimani editor P. Govinda Pillai’s house in Thiruvananthapuram one day. Govinda Pillai had just returned home from a meeting of newspaper editors called by the Chief Minister and was pleasantly surprised to see the visitor, because, he had been told at this very meeting by the Home Minister that the police had nabbed the much-wanted Venu too!

“That meeting, Govinda Pillai informed me, was called by the Chief Minister at the behest of the editors in the State. They wanted to tell him that it was becoming purposeless for the media since hardly anything happening in the State was being allowed into the pages…The Home Minister’s disclosure about my arrest to Govinda Pillai was the kind of information the government wanted to the media to print,” Venu said.

Targetting Naxalites

The main target of the crackdown against anti-Emergency forces was the Naxalites, because they were into direct action like attacks on police stations. A large number of RSS activists and most of the leftist leaders in the State too were put in jail, but spared violent handling by the police. “The then Deputy Inspector General of Police (Crime Branch), Jayaram Padikkal, was in charge of the crackdown operations. He had had training in scientific methods of crime investigation in Scotland Yard. But the devices he introduced in Kerala were the crudest imaginable,” Venu said, describing what had subsequently received much notoriety as the ‘uruttal’ method of interrogation. It involved the use of a long wooden rod, called ‘olakka’ in Malayalam, which is a traditional implement for pounding rice. The interrogators would place it across the thighs of the interrogated after forcing him to lie on a bench. Two heavily built policemen would use their weight from either side of the ‘olakka’ and roll it slowly up and down, up and down, till he fainted.

Venu said: “There would be no visible injury. But the entire length of your thigh muscles would be crushed into a jelly. They next day, they would not have to beat you. Just a gentle tap with a stick on the thigh would make you shriek out in pain.”

K. Karunakaran and Indira Gandhi. Source: Venugopal Unninathan

K. Karunakaran and Indira Gandhi. Source: Venugopal Unninathan

K. Karunakaran, who was the Home Minister in the C. Achutha Menon government in the State during the Emergency period, became the Chief Minister after the 1977 elections, with the Congress-led coalition winning a three-fourth majority in the Assembly. However, he had to resign on April 25, 1977, exactly one month after coming to the post following adverse observations from the High Court of Kerala against him for giving false testimonies in the court as a respondent in the Rajan habeas corpus case. A.K. Antony became the next Chief Minister.

A Crucial By-Election That Will Set the Course of Kerala’s Politics for 2016

For the Congress-led UDF, the CPM-led LDF and even the BJP, the Aruvikkara result will be a pointer to which way the political winds are blowing in the state.

File photo of Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy. PTI

File photo of Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy. PTI

Thiruvananthapuram:  The Bihar assembly elections later this year  may be the next big litmus test for national politics but a silent churning is taking place at the southern tip of India too, where a by-election in one of Kerala’s 140 Assembly constituencies on Saturday is expected to provide a pointer to which way the political winds will blow when the state goes to the polls in May 2016.

The June 27 by-poll in Aruvikkara in Thiruvananthapuram district is taking place because of the death this March of Congress leader G. Karthikeyan, who was the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. The Congress-led ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) has fielded his 31-year-old son K.S. Sabarinath, fresh to politics, as its candidate.

Opposing him under the banner of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) is former Speaker and CPI(M) leader M. Vijayakumar. Also in the fray is former Union Minister O.Rajagopal of the BJP.

Victory or loss will not affect the government, since the UDF has a four-seat advantage over the LDF in the Assembly. But the by-poll is being seen as a bellwether for the mood of the electorate in the State.

In the four years he has been chief minister, Oomen Chandy has moved from one controversy to another. Each scandal has served to overshadow the image of a ‘forward looking, no-nonsense’ administration being projected by the government.

In what has become famous as the ‘solar scam’, his office came under fire on the charge of assisting a woman and her male partner – both of whom are now in jail – in duping several gullible people of cash by collecting investments on behalf of a non-existent solar energy firm. The CM fought off the Opposition campaign against him on that count, but not without receiving some dents to his image. His office was found partially manned by persons of dubious integrity. In one instance, a favoured member of his official security detail got exposed as a key player in an urban land-grab case.

More recently, the ‘bar license scam’ has brought fresh discomfiture to the government. An office-bearer of the state association of bar licensees charged Finance Minister K.M. Mani – who leads the Kerala Congress (M), the third largest party in the UDF after Congress and the Indian Muslim League (IUML) – of having accepted bribes from its members for pushing a favourable liquor policy decision, which, however, did not materialise.

The decision turned unfavourable to them due largely to a dose of social concern injected into the state by V.M. Sudheeran, a leader in the Gandhian mould, soon after he was made president of the Kerala unit of the Congress before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Over 400 cheerfully buzzing bars in the state turned into sullen ‘Beer and Wine’ parlours following Sudheeran’s activism, which a government headed by a Gandhian party had to perforce accept.

On the positive side of the ledger, the progress made by the Kochi metro rail project is demonstrating a new kind of decisiveness in executing development projects. A deepwater container terminal too looks as if it getting off the starting block at Vizhinjam near the State capital after decades of wishful talk. These developments appear as bright spots within an otherwise dark background but Chandy is also hampered by his somewhat loose resource management. The government’s revenue has been sagging and, claims notwithstanding, its capacity to spend what it must on the state’s welfare programmes has been compromised.

Brimming with confidence at the start of the campaign, Chandy declared that he considered the by-poll to be a referendum on the performance of his government. ‘Aruvikkara’ means ‘the riverbank’ and the constituency has derived its name from the beautiful stream flowing past it. Just one holy dip in the river flowing down the low hills of the constituency – virtually, it would seem – and he would feel himself washed clean of all the dirt thrown on him.

However, his optimism was not shared by others. Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala the next day said he did not see the by-election as a barometer gauging the performance of the government, adding that even if the UDF won, there might be issues that needed looking into. He was clearly leaving things open. Leadership change, obviously, is in the thoughts of one section of the Congress.

Within the CPI(M), politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan – who stepped down as the party state secretary earlier this year after a long tenure of 17 years – is being seen by his well-wishers within the party and outside as the LDF’s chief ministerial candidate for the next Assembly elections. The party has fully mobilised itself, hoping to turn the Aruvikkara contest into an energising message for 2016. But the LDF’s public meetings during the campaign started seeing overflowing crowds only after his Vijayan’s bête-noir, V.S. Achuthanandan, stepped into the constituency.

Vijayan and the present party secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan are camping in the constituency directing the campaign, while Achuthanandan is the LDF’s biggest crowd puller. It is a love-hate relationship with many unpredictable elements. Achuthanandan is past 92 but he is like the samurai in the Zen story who goes on sharpening his sword all through his life, day in, day out, without rest or diversion, and so time for him comes to a halt and he never ages. No one can predict whether he would not be willing to lead the LDF’s team in the next elections. Popularity is the issue.

For the coalition partners within the UDF and LDF, not all of whom are happily bound together, the by-poll result could signal the time for considering new strategies for the 2016 Assembly elections. Kerala had for decades been a state running on coalition politics with power swinging regularly from one direction to the other with each election. The smaller parties, therefore, have come to believe they have a decisive say in setting the pendulum swinging. There are floating elements within the coalitions and so a definite indication of the mood position might set in motion a kind of reverse osmosis across the membrane dividing the two fronts.

On its part, the BJP garnered less than seven per cent of the polled votes in the constituency in the last Assembly election; but in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, its vote share in the segment doubled. That the party is seriously making a bid to open its account in the State – it has not succeeded in winning either an Assembly, or a Lok Sabha seat from Kerala so far – is apparent from its choice of the 85-year-old Rajagopal as its candidate. It cannot think beyond ‘Rajettan’, as he is endearingly called by party people, as the one who might some day break the jinx in the state. As the BJP’s candidate, he had come second behind Shashi Tharoor of the Congress in the last Lok Sabha election in Thiruvananthapuram constituency, pushing the LDF candidate to third position.