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Victim of politics
The Musharraf factor
Lost innocence |
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UPA without DMK
More punches to knock out
Modern Art: From Pigment to Pixel
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Victim of politics UNION Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has announced further liberalisation of norms for foreign investment in corporate and government bonds. Under the revised norms, applicable from April, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) can invest up to $25 billion in government securities and $51 billion in corporate bonds. This has been done by doing away with sub-limits in various segments. The aim is to bridge the widening current account deficit by attracting more foreign capital inflows. Addressing the National Editors Conference on Saturday, the Finance Minister also promised more reforms. The departure of the DMK from the UPA has made the coalition government at the Centre vulnerable. It is believed the UPA government may have to shelve reforms unacceptable to its outside supporters, the Samajwadi Party in particular. Though no party has talked of moving a no-trust motion against the government and there are rather signals of support from chief ministers Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee, political uncertainty has spooked the stock markets. The talk of early elections and a third front by Mulayam Singh hit the market sentiment on Monday even though Asian and European markets rallied as worries about the Cyprus crisis eased. After the DMK exit the UPA leaders have been trying to lift investor sentiment by holding out assurances of stability and reforms. The government raised the diesel price soon after Parliament went in for a break on Friday. The disinvestment process is on track even though stake sales in government-owned companies have been carried out at relatively low prices. The future of the pension and insurance Bills, pending in Parliament, remains uncertain. The political divide over the goods and services tax (GST) has narrowed, but still exists. The Congress hopes to implement the direct benefit transfer scheme countrywide well before the coming general election. While political parties are generally driven by electoral politics, they should try to forge a broader agreement on pro-growth measures and reforms which are for the greater good of the country.
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The Musharraf factor
WHETHER anybody likes him or does not, former Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s coming back home cannot be ignored. He is hogging the limelight more after the threat issued by the Taliban to eliminate him. Whether the controversial former Chief of Army Staff will be able to successfully contest the May 11 elections remains a matter of guess. But one thing is certain: his party, the All-Pakistan Muslim League, is a poor contender for power. Going by the position of parties today, Musharraf is likely to be the lone representative of his party in the Pakistan parliament. He enjoys negative popularity which can harm the poll prospects of his party candidates during the elections. The situation, however, may change to some extent in Musharraf’s favour if his party gets patronised by the army. The army has always been a major factor in Pakistan’s politics, but its effectiveness is doubtful in the coming polls because of the sharp decline in its popularity. So far, the army has been known for its soft corner for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan. Interestingly, Imran Khan, a former cricketer-turned-politician, has also been a favourite of extremist elements like the Taliban. The retired General is likely to face a number of court cases filed against him. One of these cases is related to the army operation he ordered against the extremists holed up in Islamabad’s Lal Masjid in 2007, leading to the death of around 100 persons, including students. The extremists and those who lost their children are unlikely to allow him to live in peace irrespective of the layers of security he has around him. Actually, Musharraf finds himself in an unenviable situation. Even as a practitioner of realpolitik, he cannot think of getting his party aligned with either of the two top claimants to power — the PPP of President Asif Ali Zardari and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — because of various reasons. Imran Khan will rather try to reduce Musharraf to a political zero as the PTI chief is described as a Taliban member in jeans. In any case, the world will be watching with curiosity how far the Musharraf factor influences the course of politics in Pakistan now that retired Justice Mir Hazar Khan has taken over as caretaker Prime Minister.
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Lost innocence INDIA'S track record on the way it treats its vulnerable sections of society is far from enviable. In fact, the country that takes pride in its demographic dividend needs to hang its head in shame at the manner in which it responds to the concerns of its most precious asset, the children. While crimes against children show no signs of abating, over 44,000 children go missing each year and one out of four is never traced. The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs informed the Rajya Sabha recently that out of 2.3 lakh children missing in last three years, nearly 75,000 have not been traced. The dismal figures speak volumes about the insensitivity with which an issue of grave importance is being addressed. Missing children land up in most inhuman environments and are exploited ruthlessly. While many are trafficked to be used as sex workers, as forced labour and pushed into begging, in some cases they even end up as victims of cannibalism as in the gruesome Nithari killing case. Besides, children often go missing from shelter homes and at times they find themselves trapped in most appalling conditions in the very institutions which are supposed to protect them. More than 50 children were confined illegally at a shelter home in Jaipur where the man who ran the shelter place allegedly used them as baits to garner funds from charitable organisations based abroad. While the Supreme Court has chided the Centre and the states for their lackadaisical approach in tracing the missing children, the government is taking some initiatives at least. After the success of a web portal in West Bengal, Track Child was launched recently to function as a central data base. Yet as India gets ready to face the challenge of missing children, the magnitude of which has been ignored for a long time, a strong political and administrative will is required. Tracking the missing children has to be a high priority concern not just for the NGOs — some of these are doing exemplary work in the field — but, more importantly, for investigation agencies also. Whether the answer lies in national DNA data banks or not, options have to be explored. Children have to be protected, whatever be the cost.
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Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom. — George Washington Carver
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UPA without DMK THE Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s withdrawal from the United Progressive Alliance Government is a signal, if one were needed, that the season of election politics has begun, whether the elections are held on schedule next year or need to be advanced. The truth is that none of the main national or regional parties really want an early election because they are not quite ready for it and want the Congress image to be further sullied in the hope of advancing their own interests. For the DMK, its decision to leave the UPA II over the evocative issue of Tamils’ plight in Sri Lanka was a logical decision. Its hope of bettering its prospects in an already beleaguered situation on home ground lies in striking an independent course after a litany of compromises it has had to make to stay in the Manmohan Singh Government. Technically, its exit leaves the UPA II in a minority and gives the DMK some room to flex its muscles. The Manmohan Singh government realises the opposition parties’ predicament and its vulnerability, despite the opposition’s rhetoric, is not all that greater than it was. The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party for one is far from ready in projecting its inevitable prime ministerial candidate, Mr Narendra Modi, on a national scale. True, Mr Modi himself is working overtime to advance his own candidature by espousing the national, as opposed to purely Gujaratis’, cause and is using every opportunity offered to unfurl his agenda based on the Gujarat development model. For his part, Mr Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) is seeking to project himself and his state of Bihar nationally by organising a jamboree in Delhi to beat the drum of ‘special status’ for Bihar. It is an old theme song but acquires greater salience because, allied through he is with the BJP in his state, he has publicly opposed the candidature of Mr Modi as the choice of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. While he has done nothing to discourage Congress hopes that he will walk out of the NDA, there are hard-headed compulsions that tie him to the BJP in his state. There are of course important state elections later this year unless they are unexpectedly merged with or overtaken by national elections. The BJP is keen to present its chief ministers in states such as Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as model rulers who have accomplished much during their stints in office in propagating that Mr Modi is not the sole star in the party’s firmament. How far this new line will persuade voters remains to be seen. But there are skeletons in the BJP cupboard. Karanataka for one is a prime example, with its government almost permanently disfunctional because of internal dissensions, with its first chief minister, Mr Y.S. Yeddyurappa, deciding to form his own breakaway party. Local elections held recently give the Congress the edge. If indeed the BJP loses in elections just announced, it would represent a major blow because Karnataka is the party’s sole regime in the South. Its reputation as a northern Hindi-speaking party would therefore be further enshrined in southern voters’ mind. Many regional parties are unsure of their future strategies, but are wary of making hasty judgments. Ms Jayalalithaa of Tamil Nadu traditionally plays her cards close to her chest, despite the open wooing by the BJP and the civilities exchanged between the two sides. Mr Naveen Patnaik in Orissa seems happy after breaking with the BJP and handily won an internal challenge. He would see no benefit in declaring his hand early. The Akalis in Punjab are very much tied to the BJP, having won the state the second time round. They have done their arithmetic and have come to the conclusion that the Hindu vote commanded by the BJP is essential in their efforts to defeat the Congress. The Trinamool Congress on the other hand is facing choppy waters, thanks largely to the impetuosity of their leader, Ms Mamata Banerjee. In breaking with the Congress and walking out of the UPA II, she was hasty and her policy projections in the state have done nothing to endear her to her electors in the state. No wonder, she has given her first tentative move towards the Congress by promising to save the Manmohan Singh government, if necessary, on the Sri Lanka issue. The Congress believes that its position is not as hopeless as the opposition parties would suggest, despite the litany of scams and the inadequacies of some of its central ministers. Mr Modi’s candidature as an aspirant Prime Minister, whether declared or otherwise, would be a boon to the Congress because it would deny the BJP even the marginal support it receives from the important Muslim community. How Mr Rahul Gandhi, his inevitable opponent, would fare as his opponent is another matter, but the Congress effort would be to de-emphasise the personal nature of the contest in favour of stressing major policy differences and the imperatives of the country’s secular character. The tragedy of the next national contest is none of the parties have new imaginative ideas to offer. The left parties are mired in their own past and limited future options. The Northeast states sing their own tunes and run predictable campaigns. In Kashmir, there seems little alternative to a Congress-National Conference combination. In counting the numbers, regional parties dream that perhaps their combined strength would surpass the two main national parties. In that case, the country would repeat the baleful tale of the 1990’s of a procession of Prime Ministers retaining office at the mercy of the Congress, which served as the puppet master. It would be no comfort even if the BJP took on the role of the puppet master. The only conclusion one can draw from this scenario is that the next general election, whenever it takes place, is likely to be more open than any preceding national poll. The Congress still believes that it will have the last laugh while the BJP seems convinced that its long agonising wait to return to office will at last
arrive.
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More punches to knock out Wrestling
is as old as human might tested against one another's strength. It might have begun with fights, but later-day gaming lapped it up to be not only fine-tuned but also to be made more sporty and a healthy activity for physical endurance, the Olympics Village's decision to throw it out of the ring notwithstanding. Though wrestling styles have been described, inter alia, as Greeko-Roman, etc, and have a long history, Haryana Olympians Sunil Kumar's and Yogeshwar Dutt's lament is the most genuine. But let me talk about the witty side of kushti-pehalwani here. You can recognise a pehalwan only by looking at his hooked nose and stuffed ears. Also some oil would definitely trickle down his ear lobes. There is always a certain glow on his face. The biceps, triceps and abs adorn the musclemen's body. Gama and Dara Singh have been no less than legends in the region. In Haryana, when they work out in the akharas, they do some 'hungaaee' which is a mock fight to let the wrestler test his strength against a well-projected but guarded counter-attack. No, they don't punch bags but only test their fingers' by doing the bend-stretch called locally as 'dund-pelna'. Dangals, which are wrestling tourneys, are a big draw in the country. A pehalwan is always said to be a man of character, not given to sensual pleasures, generally, and the local idiom that 'he is true to his langot' is quite in vogue, which means that his groins know no promiscuity. I don't know what is the English parallel of 'daav' which are some foolproof tricks or moves to knock down your opponent. I know one in 'dhobi-paat' which is a manoeuvre when one wrestler holds the other in a way a washerman does the bunched clothes hitting them against a hard surface to cleanse them of ‘dhinka-chika’ type! Well, the joke goes like this. Once someone from the trading community challenged a wrestler in a bout — ‘dangal’. The latter smiled and accepted the challenge thinking his competitor to be an easy prey. While the bout was going on, the 'weakling' whispered in the ears of the pehalwan that if he stood fallen, he would be rewarded with two kgs of ghee, which should help him take on the mightier wrestlers. Succumbing to the 'bribe' offer, the pehalwan surrendered. He later asked for his ghee when the victor weakling quipped—'Why, sir, it was only my daav to defeat you!' In my pre-university days I had a hostel-mate by the name Bheema who was a wrestler too. He mugged up books as we all said 'all through the twenty-six hours in a day’ for he was, again as we all said, ‘weak in the upper strorey’. Once having been knocked out even before the count of three in a bout, he rushed to our hostel and beat up his friend who offered him ‘sanadh-ka-ghee’ (certified pure) to rub on his nose before he entered the ring. ‘This idiot's ghee wasn't as pure, which made me lose’, Bheema lamented. Maliks in Haryana always like to be addressed with the prefix 'Sahab'. Once someone was beaten black and blue by one Malik. The former tried every other way to be spared and lastly beseeched, 'O, Malik Sahab chhod dey!’ 'Why did you not say it earlier!' he said and spared the man. And the last word of sympathy for those who fall in love with a ‘pehalwan ki beti’ There you go ‘chit' as in ‘Chit bhi meri, putt bhi meri, anta mere baap ka', quoted by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Parliament once, meaning 'Heads or tails, I only
win!'
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Modern Art: From Pigment to Pixel
AS the National Gallery of Modern Art enters the 60th year since its inception, a mere estimated 0.2% of Delhi's population visits it annually, calling into question its very mandate as a "national" institution. The appalling stagnancy of stalled acquisitions of art works devoid of clear policy for a decade, flawed processes mired in red-tape, lack of trained curatorial personnel, vacuous professional outreach and a near-absence of any national strategy of relevance, research and resonance with reason, flies in the face of a country of a billion strong that prides itself in its artistic contributions to the world. The confusing incongruence of decision making, muddled museum-gallery semantics, lack of delegation, committee-based advisories led with limited museum experience or expertise, and the oft-repeated deference by default to the Ministry of Culture for answers, is symptomatic of a deeper festering dysfunction that has plagued and painted a legacy of low expectations from tax-payer funded art museums. With Indian artists increasingly finding unbridled creative, mixed-media platforms abroad after facing frustrations with bureaucracy, it is perhaps time to convene a solution driven strategy to harness ingenuity and celebrate indigenous creativity. It was 59 years ago in March that the first Vice President of India Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan unveiled the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in yet another colonial building that was the residential palace of the Maharaja of Jaipur. The curatorial rigours were institutionalized under the direction of its first curator Hermann Goetz- a German art historian who came to Punjab to study Himalayan art with his wife Annemarie in 1936 on a Kern Grant. The seminal literary work produced by Hermann Goetz on Indian historiography continues to be the only comprehensive scholarly body of fieldwork of its kind to this day. Whether it should be a cause of glee or grief is for the current curators and consumers of visual expression to gauge.
Art and acquisition According to Rajeev Lochan, the present Director of the NGMA, the museum presents an exhaustive trajectory of the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in India in conjunction with a strong research-based publication programme. Works of Indian modernists such as Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Binod Behari Mukherjee, Ramkumar Kinkar, Amrita Sher-gil, Dhanraj Bhagat, and others are juxtaposed with Pablo Picasso, Jacob Epstein, Giorgio de Chirico, Peter Lubarda, Henry Moore, Sonia Delaunay and Kozo Mio. Oddly enough, in the absence of an acquisitions/ collections policy, 7000 of the 13,000 works belong to one artist! Senior artists bemoan the fact, for years the museum has not been bale to acquire fresh works of art to maintain its contemporary appeal. Can they ever afford to buy a Subodh Gupta, the artist who represents Indian art abroad and whose works are acquired by major foreign galleries and museums? Perhaps the biggest embarrassment for the NGMA came when it seemed apparently clueless about the Sotheby's auction of 12 paintings by India's first Nobel Laureate- Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th anniversary fetching £1.6 million. So great was the concern that the Chief Minister of West Bengal urged the Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture to intervene to avert the loss of national treasures, to little avail, as the existing Antiquities & Art Treasures (AAT) Act of 1972 has no in-built provisions or jurisdiction to address such acquisitions and private auctions. Adding to the woes were his great grandson Siddharth Tagore's concerns about the poorly curated exhibition at the NGMA with glaring typos, missing dimensions and year of some of the works on display, reflective of careless malaise, elusive excellence and lack of accountability, unbecoming of a national institution.
The other museums While the expression of modern art in India has drawn from the alien western roots, the conversations in color have yielded to cultural adaptations and sensibilities- often forced with clichéd metaphors and predictable overuse of symbols that are associated with India in the western mind, yet evocative in their own right. Traveling exhibits, biennales, auctions, art fares and associated retail are seeping into an educated, widely travelled, aesthetically inclined middle class that is beginning to look beyond the decorative and or conversational power of a work of art, and looking for personal meaning and value to their own acquisitions. While classical art and Folk art traditions in India have seen a revival and continued acceptance in the national aesthetic, modern art still struggles to find a voice. The paralysis of relating intrinsically to contemporary art is not just within the galleries and museums, but is pervasive in the absence of resonance of relational aesthetics in public spaces and our way of life. There is a growing movement among art patrons, private collectors, auctioneers and corporate businesses to invest in art and art galleries. While the house of Tatas, Birlas, Sarabhais, Naders, Godrejs and others have been buying and displaying art for decades, there are some unique examples of public-private-partnerships that are raising the bar for art appreciation. A vanguard initiative is the Rs.290 Crore Kolkotta Museum of Modern Art (KMoMA) designed by Swiss architects Herzog & deMeuron, known for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the deYoung Museum in San Francisco and the Tate Modern in London. An equally ambitious initiative has found voice in the capital at the decommissioned Indraprastha Power Plant along the lines of the Tate Modern in London. With a whopping estimated price tag of Rs.560 Crore that would endorse sustainable design practices on the 60 acre site by the Yamuna river. In addition to these prospects, the Louvre is eyeing the possibility of establishing an extension of its artistic reach in India. In 2011, the President of the Louvre Museum, Henri Loyette led a French delegation to many Indian museums and held gainful discussions with the ICCR (Indian Council of Cultural Relations) President, Dr. Karan Singh on long-term engagement and cooperation.
Educational eclectics Much of the publications and research in the realm of modern, contemporary and post-modern art in India has been collections oriented and entailed examining existing collections- with the exception of oddities such as the mummies and other artifacts offering an obtuse curious alliance with modern art. Very little attention has been given to gathering data and trends from across the diverse sub-continent to discern the influence that shapes post-modern Indian art and its influence on societal relational aesthetics. Art history and appreciation programs at universities, art galleries and museums in India are equally guilty of not recognizing the need for continual research that would impact institutional mandate, commercial and non-commercial forces and other spheres of visual communication and birth of eternally evolving experimentation. The internet has been a tremendous influence in the structure of artistic anthology. The seamless symbiosis of artistic trends and styles of expression on one hand flit through the cyber realm at an unprecedented pace while on the other hand, it threatens to pollute purity of original work. The viral vector of key-strokes and google images, makes it impossible for artists to shed the subconscious influence on their ingenuity. The sensory leap provided by the internet is here to stay and will only get increasingly pervasive and adaptive. The contemporary artist has to now affront the accalia and draw inspiration from a newly summoned sensibility of the aesthete.
Void and vision Though the NGMA has set up satellite museums in Mumbai and Bengaluru at enormous costs borne by the tax-payer, its metro-centric approach with dismal visitation numbers is at odds with its national mandate, especially in a country where 80 percent of the population resides in semi-rural to rural suburbia. Unlike the National Council of Science Museums that made a calculated strategic thrust by expanding into National, Regional, District and Rural Science museums to address India's diverse needs, the NGMA has no such master-plan on the anvil. Art is still perceived and perpetuated as an elitist engagement, even as ironically, the overwhelming pre-occupation of modernist and post-modernist artists has drawn from the rural aesthetic- be it brahman priests of Anjolie Ela Menon, the loitering cows in abstraction of Manjit Bawa or the village girls from around Amritsar immortalized by Amrita Sher- Gil. With China investing in 100 museums and the UAE committing upwards of $30 billion, India as an aspiring superpower, lags behind in vision, competence and drive in failing to recognize the tangible power of the intangible. India needs a comprehensive Art Policy in conjunction with a Museum Policy and an implementation strategy aimed at a rural and urban cultural renaissance of sorts, for expressing, appreciating, celebrating, promoting and sustaining the arts industry that could in-turn be an economic driver for regional and national growth. The artistic vocabulary of the vernacular is unlike any other and needs a uniquely 'Indian' sensibility of adaptive cognizance. The author is a well-known museoloist
NGMA- some laurels Over the years, the NGMA has made laudable incremental strides to improve on its exhibitions, international collaborations and expansion of its satellite facilities. However, commendable as they may be, much needs to be done in articulating a vision to collaborate actively with India's 28 States and 7 Union Territories. Memorable among its recent achievements are; Anish Kapoor show, retrospective on Ram Kinkar Baij and the Skoda Prize show of Contemporary Art.
NGMA : Visitation Woes National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi Former 1936 Residential Palace of Maharaja of Jaipur Architect Sir Arthur Bloomfield Established 29 March, 1954 as a Museum (now with branches in Mumbai 1996 and Bengaluru 2006) Collections:
17,813 works of Art, Photographs, Sculpture & Mixed-media (circa 1857- 2013) Galleries: 12,000 sq.M. Average Annual visitation at NGMA:
30,000 estimated (Population of Delhi 16 million +) 2011 census + 50 lakh tourists approximately. Museum of Modern Art
(MOMA) New York Population of New York City - Approx 8 million 3.09 million visitors during its 2010 fiscal year however, attendance dropped 11 percent to 2.8 million in 2011, due to recession. Tate Modern, London Population of London- 8 million Since it opened in May 2000, more than 40 million people have visited Tate Modern. It is one of the UK's top three tourist attractions and generates an estimated £100 million in economic benefits to London annually.
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Ask an average Indian about modern art and the response could border on a bemused dismissive scoff. Often laced with a sense of wasteful disdain for the untalented who masquerade as "artists" and serve as a pre-occupation of the elitist, modern art in India has always struggled with a schizophrenic identity crises. Many are nearly clueless about what modern art represents and how this form of expression differs from contemporary art and post-modern art.