2019 Edition of Pondi Lit Fest: Full of Sound and Fury

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LG at the Event caption

The Three Day extravaganza in Pondicherry, the Third Edition of the Pondicherry Lit Fest, the first genuine attempt on the part of those who do not subscribe to Red Fascism that dominates the intellectual discourse in India got off to a flying start with Her Excellency Dr Kiran Bedi making a remarkable speech, both scholarly and intersting, on Tamil as a Global Language and Literature. Her presentation was sharp focussed and in all respects flagged the pupose for a Lit Fest. Unfortunately her plea for an inclusive and caliberated approach towars Language and Literaure seems to have falllen on the soil of Carthage.

Professor Anand Ranganath was devastating in his criticism of the Left Eco system. We are all aware that Red Fascism at the intelelctual level was backed by State Power and the Right was reduced to a bit player during the 70 years of Congress dynstic rule. The suppression of intellectual freedom, the absolute bureacratization of culture through various state sponsore Akademis, the infringement of the academic freedom of Universites by imposing a third rate curriculaum through the agencies of state are all the ills that can be laid at the door step of the Left and their acolytes. But the Question remains: Are the Nationalists doing enough to reclaim lost territory or are they replacing one set of "sarkari" intellectuals with another

Anand Ranganath

From the eloquent speech of Professor Anand Ranganathan it was clear to me that a deep hurt resides in the heart of intellectuals. Years of rejection humiliation and alienation has opened up and demotratized the public sphere and that is due not to the intelelctual class but to Narendra Modi. It was his spectacular victory that has democratised the public sphere and intellectuals like Prof Anand ranganathan are in reality the beneficairies of that political victory. He is quite right when he rejcts the notion of of a "Right Wing Ecosystem". The fact is the Right in India, unlike the Left is riven with dissent and it is not possible to contruct a monolitic alternative to Red Fascism that has rule the Indian mind for nearly a century. And if we go by the example set by the "New Intelelctuals" of the present day sarkar, it is unlikely to make a serious dent in the legitimacy of the Left.

The Three day event was sponsored by Republic TV abd therefore as part of its Corporate Social Responsiblity underwrote this Three Day Event. I could not help wondering if the racuous crowd from Aranb's stable was just beamed into our Pondicherry. We had the same gaggle of 'tele intellectuals" M R Venkatesh, Sunil Pandit, Tavleen Singh, Vikram Sood, General Dua and the whole host of faces already seen on Republic TV and of course we had the bhadralok, Dr Swapan Das Gupta and Hanchan da. An interesting set of debates followed.

The Kasmir issue was discussed thread bare and the issue was addressed with due seriousness. Arif Mohammad was quite eloquent in his ple for a Civil Code. Hindutva and Hinduism were discussed.

Of ourse the new icons like Anirban Ganguly and Virkam Sampath were visible during the presntations. What need to be done is that "Intellectuals" should stop becoming appendages to the State. Because the Red Fascists were propped by by the then Government is no reason for us to expect the State's largess for survival. There was hardly any particiaption from Pondicherry but it is the good fortune of Pondicherry to be a prop for: In search of an Indian Intellectual.

Twenty Fourth Convocation of Pondicherry University, October 4th 2016

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Dr Kiran Bedi Delivering the Convocation Address, 4th Oct 2016

 Pondicherry University celebrated in a grand manner the 24th Convocation on 4th October 2016. Dr Kiran Bedi, the Lt Governor of Pondicherry and the Chief Rector of the University, was invited to deliver the Convocation Address. The Vice Chancellor Dr Anisa Basheer Khan, had made all the arrangements for this spectacular event. Since there had been no commencement ceremony in the UNiversity for the past three years, there was ahuge back log of degrees to be awarded and the University had create a special space for the Convocation to be held. The R G Cricket Stadium was converted into the Convocation Hall by erecting a pandal. Fortunately the rain gods were kind and there was no rain.

The venue of the Convocation caption

The pandal had a seating capacity for over three thousand guests and the Hall was packed with parents, students and faculty. On the whole it was a great success. I was rather apprehensive about the whole affair as the event took the whole day. Dr Kiran Bedi was at the venue right on time and she was her charming best. She spoke to the graduates who received their degree certificates from her and smiled for the photograph. This gesture on the part of the Lt Governor was noted and appreciated by the people.

 The Vice Chancellor, Professor Anisa Khan, who took charge of the University at a very critical time steered the UNivesity through a very challenging time and she brought the Academic Calendar back on track. She gave the Report Card of the University and informed us that the University had risen to the eleventh position in the all India ranking established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Dr Kiran Bedi was at her eloquent best. She stressed the need to create a Clean Pondicherry and used the occasion to drive home the point that the student community and the UNiversity must strike to make Pondicherry or Puducherry as she insisted on calling it, OD free fromOctober 2nd 2017. She extracted the pledge from the assembled graduating

DR Raju, Dr Reddy and Dr Shetty dressed in the Academic Robes

students.

DR Anisha Khan, the VC delivering the welcome Address

Kiran Bedi launches the Swachch Pakwada in Pondicherry University

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Kiran Bedi, VC and Chief Secretary

The Lt Governor returned to Pondicherry University on the afternoon of September 26thwith the Chief Secretary of the state in tow. This time the agenda was to work out the modalities of the Swachch Pakwada and the strategies through which the student community can be linked to the overall Government achene to create awareness about ODF. After reviewing the minutes of the earlier meeting the Lt Governor Dr Kiran Bedi quickly got down to business. She is delivering the Convocation Address in Pondicherry University on October 4th and has decided to use the occasion to speak of the hazards of OD in Pondicherry. In Kalapet, there is a slum near the beach called Thidir Nagar and here the residents use the beach as one large open air toilet.Changing the habits of people is not easy and it would require all the skills of an energetic Lt Governor and a whole army of students to change the entrenched mind set.

The Lt Governor has created an large number of BGOs and her association with India Against Corruption which had our revered Baba Ramdev as its leading light in recent history. She insisted on the creation of a Whatts App group with the Dean School of Communication as the Administrator. We had given the telephone numbers of all the participants and we hope that a reasonable number will join the group. The students of Pondicherry University will be provided transport by the Government and taken to the place where they will work.

The idea is good and I hope that it succeeds.

AAM ADMI PARTY VICTORY IN DELHI, FEB 2015

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The victory of the AAP in the recently concluded polls came as a complete shock to many of us. While the victory of the AAP was predicted the scale of the victory was unprecedented to say the least. The BJP had won all 7 Lok Sabha seats in the May 2014 General Election with a vote share of 37.5%. There has been a slight fall in the vote share  but the BJP won only 3 seats leaving 67 seats to the AAP. What explains this debacle?

1 It is now clear that the projection of Kiran Bedi as the Chief Ministerial candidate mid way through the polls was a flawed strategy and doubly so because that move was not welcomed by the grass root workers of the party. Her high handed conduct alienated party workers and the net result she lost the Krishna Nagar seat, a safe constituency of the BJP.

2 The BJP went into the elections without a Manifesto and that meant that the people of Delhi did not know what to expect from the Party. The Vision Document released was largely a symbolic statement huge on rhetoric but short on specifics. Now in retrospect that was  a factor.

3 The BJP was on a roll winning state after state and had become used to the habit of winning and assumed that Delhi would be a piece of cake. The AAP has built a good net work of supporters in different localities and had the city well covered. A committed band of volunteers worked night and day to make the victory possible. The AAP was able to tap the misguided idealism of the youth who believe that the AAP brand of politics will augur change in India.

4 The BJP under the State President Shri Satish Upadhya was handicapped by the lack of support from the top duo of the Party, Modi and Shah. Satish Upadhya himself was denied a ticket to fight the Polls while defectors like Krishna Tirath were given tickets. The ticket distribution was faulty and there were far too many para troopers wafting from above queering the pitch.

5 The perceived "negative campaign" of the BJP against the much vaunted financial and ethical probity of the AAP is also touted as a reason. The fact is that the AAP is guilty of using shady and dubious finances during the campaign but turned its own misdeeds against the BJP. The AAP is very good at turning all criticism against its conduct as a trial between the forces of good and the forces of evil a kind of eschatology which may lead to short term gains but not long lasting results.

6 The BJP has lost and like a mature political party has started introspecting. The first clear indication of change is the reluctance to enter the dirty cess  pool of Bihar politics. The BPJ will  learn its lessons and get its house in order before the Bihar polls later this year.

Kiran Bedi and the Delhi Assembly Polls, 2015

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Once again the same questions and again loud, incoherent noises passing off as political wisdom. The BJP inducted Dr Kiran Bedi into the party and is projecting her as the Chief Ministerial face of the campaign for the Delhi Assemble polls scheduled for February 2015. The BJP has lost its advantage in terms of the Modi factor and has therefore "parachuted" Kiran Bedi screamed Arvind Khejriwal. Not to be outdone, the Congress leader Ajay Maken, yes the same Ajay Maken from Hans Raj about whom the dynastic fascist leader, Mani Shankar Ayer said some unpleasant things a few years back, declared that there is dearth of local leadership in the Delhi unit of the BJP. Therefore both the AAP and the Congress are reading mixed political signals in this new development. Added to the motives attributed to the induction of Kiran Bedi is the fading halo around Narendar Modi which according the APPtards has alarmed the Party. Let us see the validity of these arguments.

Dr Kiran Bedi is a prize catch as she is a well known crusader against Corruption and has shared the limelight along with Anna Hazare and his acolyte, Arvind Khejriwal. Since APP will again try to rake up the Lokpal Bill and the response of the BJP to the promise to pass a strong Lok Pal Bill, it makes sense to have the mascot of the anti Corruption movement to confront Khejriwal. None of the other leaders from Delhi match up to the record and stature of Kiran Bedi. Dr Harsh Vardhan would have been ideal, but for some strange reason he is in the dog house for the moment. Satish Upadhya cannot take on Arvind Khejriwal one on one and the BJP leadership has rightly understood this. I must add that even without Kiral Bedi, the BJP could still sweep the polls in Delhi, but there is a definite edge to the BJP Campaign now. Second, Delhi has a large Sikh population which will not vote for the Congress given its abysmal record in 1984 and Kiran Bedi being a Sikh will certainly help bring some of the votes now that the alliance with the Akali Dal is getting unstuck. Lastly, the administrative experience of Kiran Bedi cannot match anyone of her rivals. There is a strong undercurrent of support for Kiran Bedi even in the Juggi Jonpuri colonies due to her track record of service through the NGO she heads.

Now the results as I see it. Before the induction of Bedi. BJP would on its own have won around 35 to 38 seats. Now it will cross 40 though it will not reACH 49 SEATS IT ONCE HELD IN THE FIRST ASSEMBLY. Therefore Amit Shah and the BJP central leadership have pulled a coup by bringing in Kiran Bedi.

Aseem Trivedi Cartoons: An Essay

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books Indian politicians are getting touch and sensitive about cartoons. I think when a political order is in a state of absolute free fall, the decaying order becomes hypersensitive to the caricature in cartoons. The MPs and MLAs now know that the citizens of India are filled with contempt and anger for the egregious plunder they have indulged in over the years. Actually more tham corruption which is there in all political systems, it is the politicians like Laloo Prasad Yadave and D P Yadava, Jagdish Tytler and other such criminals who masquerade as "peoples" representatives which stokes the anger of peo on his carple. P Chidambaram, the Finance Minister, was defeated in the Sivagnagai Parliamentary Constituency but goes arpound with the emblem of the Republic emblazoned on his car. Rightly there is anger because the Constitution of India does not envisage a Kletocratic state. Dr B R Ambedkar and his team worked out a Constitution which would be the basis of a civilized political order underpinned by Rule of Law. We now have the rule of outlaws and some of them like Poolan Devi even were elected to parliament and I am sure that Tamil Badu would have elected Veerapan, had he not been encountered. Now the Cartoons. I have shown them with this blog not because the cartoon are of a high artistic value but because they succeeded eminently in doing what Shri Aseem Trivedi set out to do: provoke anger and contempt. There is nothing remotely seditious about the cartoons and to invoke the outdated Anti Sedition Law is outrageous. The arrest and imprisonment of Shri Trivedi only shows that the corrupt political class is hitting back using the instruments of the state and when this happens we know that the end is in sight. A discredited political order tottering at the weight of its own monstrous inequities is struggling to regain the ground that is slipping from under its feet and in this I do not see any difference between the Congress and the BJP. I was surprised at the response of both Kiran Bedi and Arvind Khejriwal who in an oblique manner justified the arrest and imprisonment of Shrri Asseem Trivedi. I see this issue as one that frames an informed citizen's right to critique the politics of his land. He has not offended any religious or identity group and his depictions are not scandalous. I have a complaint. I personally dislike the use of animals as symbols of evil. In ome of the cartoons the lions of the Republic are replaced by jackals. I like Juno the Jackal of Karadi Tales and I made him the hero of a whole series of stories on which my daughter grew up and I strongly condemn the use of the animal is this disgusting way. The lions could have easily been replaced by a Gandhi topi wearing kletocrat and it would have been OK. Otherwise these cartoons do make a powerful impact on the viewer. I appeal to the authorities through my Blog to release Shri Trivedi,