#Art: Famous Paintings from India

Raja Ravi Varma

Bharat Mata (1905) by Abanindranath Tagore

Santiniketan Triptych by Tyeb Mehta

You Can't Please All (1981) by Bhupen Khakhar

Brahmcharis by Amrita Sher-Gil

Mother India by Amrita Sher-Gil

#Society: The Girl Who Would Fly

One of my unhealthy habits is reading local newspaper daily. I call it an unhealthy habit because it thrusts a lot of information into my brain which I would rather be happy without. Most pages contain news about crime, accidents, fraud and other assorted bad-news. There is an editorial page which is designed to bore readers to sleep. There are sports pages which cover what all games foreign people are playing and winning in distant countries. There are capsules of health tips which are perhaps designed to scare readers rather than educate them. There are ads of major brands and for finding missing people. The only pages I love and find useful come in the form of ‘flyers’ from local playschools and restaurants with free home deliveries. Not for their content but I love their colorful design and beautiful paper. To top it, these leaflets are unexpected and a total surprise. But I have been planning to stop newspaper delivery at home for several days.

On the inside pages of today’s newspaper, one news item stood out. A girl jumped from the third floor of GIP mall, Noida yesterday. She arrived alone at the mall, walked for around half an hour, went to the third floor and jumped. Her head broke. She was hurried to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead. The newspaper showed the picture while she was being carried away. Mall-goers were flocking and standing around her like they usually do. A suicide note was found with her which she had addressed to her lover, probably a boy. She mentioned that she loved her friend very much and they were not able to talk for several days which had created a lot of distress in her and hence to end it she had decided to jump. Newspaper reported that she belonged to some other place in UP; was staying in Noida in one of the suburbs and she worked in a company in Noida. She was very much like the regular mall-rats we see in the shopping malls all around. Except that she won’t be seen anymore from today onward. And no one would notice. 

In many ways this girl represented what we call the current generation. She was the youth which makes our country ‘youngistan’. She was the young employee which companies depend upon to keep the input cost low, in order to earn higher profits and give VRS to older employees. She was the typical young earning customer which shopping malls depend upon to do impulsive buying of fashionable products. A girl with a job living alone in a big city; she was the pride of Indian middle class parents. She was the audience which our Bollywood based social reformers like Sushmita Sen and Priyanka Chopra count upon to listen to their feminist sermons. She was the customer pharma a.k.a. cosmetic companies target to make their skin a little fairer. She was the user Facebook and Whatsapp count to keep circulating selfies and videos endlessly. Except that she decided to fly out of their networks yesterday. 

I do not know what went into her mind, but certainly it was more than “I have not been able to talk to my friend for several days". A few days ago, another incident was reported in the newspaper. A girl was seen walking on Metro track in Noida. Onlookers made video of her walk on the Metro line and circulated it online. Based on the CCTV footage, the Police found that she had got into a Metro train along with her boyfriend but during their journey they had a fight and the boyfriend got down from the train at a station. The girl also got down on the next station and started walking back toward the previous station using the track! The CCTV footage showed that she had tried to jump on the track apparently to commit suicide but she could not dare and hence started walking on it. Thankfully she was rescued before it was too late and she left. No case was filed in the police. 

Certainly both these incidents are not one-off cases and represent what is happening in today’s society. These incidents also put question mark on the kind of ‘woman empowerment’ we are doing. Are we putting too much pressure on our young girls which they are not able to handle? Are we not able to differentiate between reel life which movies show and the real life which they have to lead? Are we allowing them to make decisions without first giving them enough wisdom in order to make those? Like Superhit movies, I would leave you pondering at the questions instead of giving my version of answers. 

Finally, I called up the newspaper vendor and stopped newspaper delivery at my home. Hopefully it would save my mind with some unappreciated negativity and the paper saved would save lives of some trees until those are cut down on some other pretext. 

- Rahul Tiwary

#National: Should Delhi become Full-fledged Union Territory Again?

All political parties want Delhi to be made into a a full-fledged State like 29 other States of India. I think given the experience, we should do the reverse. Dissolve its assembly and make it a full-fledged Union Territory again; like it was done in the 1950s. I describe my reasons as below. But before that a bit of history.

After Independence, Delhi was a full-fledged State. The Delhi Legislative Assembly was first constituted on 7th March, 1952. Chaudhary Brahm Prakash Yadav was the first Chief Minister of Delhi. However in 1956, through States Re-organisation Act, Delhi was made a Union Territory under the direct administration of the President of India. Delhi Legislative Assembly became non-existent. In 1957, through the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, Delhi Municipal Corporation was formed. 

In 1991, through an amendment to the Constitution of India, National Capital Territory of Delhi was formed through which the Legislative Assembly, Council of Ministers and a Chief Minister also came back into existence. The first assembly election under new setup was held in 1993 and Madan Lal Khurana became CM. 

Now, reasons why Delhi should be under Union Territory status: 

Practically, Delhi is a Municipality; in whatever terms it stands for. It would make practical sense to make it a state only if it were a large diversified area with a combination of cities, towns and villages which also to a large extent made it a self-sustaining entity. Delhi is practically a city with its old villages having become urban. There is no point calling a city s "State". There is no point having an Assembly where practically most job is done by the Municipal Corporation.

New Delhi being capital of India, it practically makes more sense to keep Delhi directly under Central Government's administrative control. A Mayor of Delhi can do a better job than a CM. Every time a head of another country comes visiting India, anyways Central Govt agencies have to take care of all arrangements. All international media agencies have very stringent coverage of India's Capital and hence any signs of political instability, anarchy, crime or violence in Delhi gets an immediate and widespread international media coverage. A state government headed by a regional party is way too incompetent to manage such scenarios which have international repercussions. 

In Delhi, there is an unnecessary possibility of scuffle between State Govt (if there is one in Delhi) and the Central Government agencies because of inherent overlap of duties and areas of interest. Practically we have seen that State Govt of Delhi has been able to function well only if a National level political party was in its power; because it has better understanding of political and administrative governance and of managing work between various central and state agencies. The moment a regional party came into power, last few years have seen large instances of anarchy which we cannot afford in national capital region. Since in democracy there is always a possibility that political parties of all kinds can get power, we should purge this possibility. Having a divergent or an anarchist regional level party capturing power in the Capital of India leads to maligning India's image in the international forums. 

Finally, population of Mumbai and Kolkata are way more than Delhi but those cities are able to function well under a Municipal Corporation control. There is no specific reason why Delhi should have its own assembly, every colony should have its MLA and it should spend so much money in running a separate state government. If we dissolve state assembly and switch back to central control, the expenses saved in running a state government could lead to less taxes and better facilities for the population.

The conclusion is simple: India should make Delhi a full-fledged Union Territory again and focus on more productive matters. 

- Rahul Tiwary [Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal.]