Malevolent Republic

by K S Komireddi

  19. Mitta and Phoolka, When a Tree Shook Delhi, p. 69.

  20. James Manor, ‘Rajiv Gandhi and Post-Election India: Opportunities and Risks’, World Today, Vol. 41, No. 3, March 1985, p. 52.

  21. Rao, ‘The Great Suicide’.

  22. ‘When India became the first country to ban “The Satanic Verses” much before the Iranian fatwa’, Scroll, 4 October 2015: www.scroll.in/article/758288/when-india-became-the-first-country-to-ban-the-satanic-verses-much-before-the-iranian-fatwa.

  23. David Brewster, India’s Ocean: The Story of India’s Bid for Regional Leadership, Routledge, London, 2014, p. 52.

  24. Pradeep Nayak, The Politics of the Ayodhya Dispute, Commonwealth Publishers, Delhi, 1993, p. 120.

  3. Decadence

  1. Population: India Census, 1991 (it did not include Jammu and Kashmir). Telephone statistic: Arvind Panagariya, India: The Emerging Giant, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, p. 371.

  2. Atul Kohli, ‘Politics of Economic Growth in India, 1980-2005, Part II: The 1990s and Beyond’, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 41, No. 14, 8 April 2006, pp. 1361–1370.

  3. Ved Mehta, ‘Letter from New Delhi’, New Yorker, 19 August 1991.

  4. G.S. Bhargava, Star Crossed India, Gyan Books, Delhi, 2005, pp. 153–154.

  5. Shobha Tsering Bhalla, ‘No Ifs, Please, I’m PM’, Straits Times, 30 June 1991.

  6. Rao, ‘The Great Suicide’.

  7. ‘His Own Man’, Economist, 29 June 1991.

  8. An excellent guide to the reforms of 1991 is Atul Kohli, Poverty Amid Plenty in the New India, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2012.

  9. Edward A. Gargan, ‘India’s New Premier Challenges the System, and the Reaction is Predictable’, New York Times, 6 August 1991.

  10. For an interesting perspective, see Manju Parikh, ‘The Debacle at Ayodhya: Why Militant Hinduism Met with a Weak Response’, Asian Survey, July 1993, pp. 673–684.

  11. Edward A. Gargan, ‘Hindu Militants Destroy Mosque, Setting Off a New Crisis in India’, New York Times, 7 December 1992.

  12. Speech by K.R. Narayanan, President of India, 18 September 1998, www.krnarayanan.in/html/speeches/others/bilkent18sept98.htm.

  13. H.M. Eliot (Ed.), The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians: Vol III, London, 1872, pp. 42–45.

  14. Romila Thapar, Medieval India: History Textbook for Class VII, NCERT, Delhi, 1988, p. 26.

  15. Ibid, p. 83.

  16. Ibid, pp. 2–3.

  17. Ibid, p. 66.

  18. Octavio Paz, In Light of India, Harcourt, New York, 1995, p. 37.

  19. For an outstanding study of colonial India that complicates dominant post-colonial perspectives of the period, see Peter L. Schmitthenner, Telugu Resurgence: C.P. Brown and Cultural Consolidation in Nineteenth-century South India, Manohar, Hyderabad, 2001.

  20. M.C. Shah, Consensus and Conciliation: PV Narasimha Rao, Shipra Publications, Delhi, 1992, pp. 80–83.

  21. ‘Negating Nehru’, editorial, Christian Science Monitor, 14 August 1991.

  22. ‘Economic Reforms Make Deng Man of the Year’, South China Post, 30 December 1992.

  23. M.C. Shah, Consensus and Conciliation, p. 85.

  24. Minutes from the Liebler–Rao meeting can be found here: http://jcpa.org/article/a-1991-meeting-with-prime-minister-narasimha-rao/; the best account of the India–Israel relations during PV’s tenure is P.R. Kumaraswamy, India’s Israel Policy, Columbia University Press, New York, 2010.

  25. For a fascinating account of Rao’s engagement with East Asia, see Sunanda Datta-Ray, Looking East to Look West: Lee Kuan Yew’s Mission India, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2009. For a brisk summary of Rao’s hectic foreign tours before his US visit, see Sanjaya Baru, ‘Mr Rao Goes to Washington’, Times of India, 29 April 1994.

  26. For an interesting account, see Strobe Talbott, Engaging India, Viking, New Delhi, 2004, and C. Raja Mohan, Crossing the Rubicon: The Shaping of India’s New Foreign Policy, Viking, New Delhi, 2003.

  27. Editorial, Wall Street Journal, 25 May 1994.

  28. ‘The President’s News Conference with Prime Minister Rao of India, 19 May 1994’, Clinton Presidential Documents: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/WCPD-1994-05-23/pdf/WCPD-1994-05-23.pdf.

  29. John Burns, ‘India Now Winning US Investment’, New York Times, 6 February 1995.

  30. Pavan Varma, The Great Indian Middle Class, Viking, Delhi, 1999, p. 180.

  31. Ibid, p. 177

  32. For a vibrant account of the changes that occurred, see Varma, The Great Indian Middle Class, pp. 170–185.

  33. Ibid, p. 182

  34. Atul Kohli, ‘Politics of Economic Growth in India’.

  35. Varma, The Greater Indian Middle Class, pp. 198–199.

  36. ‘Raise Him Up’, Economist, 3 September 2016

  37. Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, ‘The unsung genius of India’s reforms’, New York Times, 29 December 2004.

  38. Vinay Sitapati, The Man Who Remade India: A Biography of P.V. Narasimha Rao, Oxford University Press, New York, 2018, p. 5.

  4. Dissolution

  1. John F. Burns, ‘Sonia Gandhi, the “Foreigner”, Startles the Political Pundits’, New York Times, 27 December 1998.

  2. ‘Singh: Reform with “human face”’, CNN, 20 May 2004.

  3. Vinod Jose, ‘Falling Man’, Caravan, 1 October 2011.

  4. ‘Rajan traces NPA mess to banks’ excesses in 2006-08’, Hindu Business Line, 11 September 2018.

  5. Sanjiv Shankaran, ‘World Bank clears $4.3 bn loan package’, Mint, 24 September 2009.

  6. ‘Banks may have to shell out another up to $5.6 billion for bad debt: India Ratings’, Reuters, 5 February 2019: www.reuters.com/article/us-india-banks-indiaratings/banks-may-have-to-shell-out-another-up-to-56-billion-for-bad-debt-india-ratings-idUSKCN1PU1GN.

  7. ‘Income, Expenditure, Productive Assets and Indebtedness of Agricultural Households in India’, National Sample Survey Office, New Delhi, 2013, http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/nss_rep_576.pdf.

  8. P. Sainath, ‘Farm suicide trends in 2012 remain dismal’, 29 June 2013: www.psainath.org/farm-suicide-trends-in-2012-remain-dismal/.

  9. P. Sainath, ‘How right you are, Dr. Singh’, Hindu, 14 September 2010.

  10. Kapil Komireddi, ‘Blood runs in India’s red corridor’, Guardian, 23 April 2009: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/23/india-elections-protest.

  11. Amit Bhaduri, The Face You Were Afraid to See, Penguin, Delhi, 2009, p. 181.

  12. Sandeep Pandey, ‘Reports on police firing in Dumka, Jharkhand’, Sanhati: www.sanhati.com/news/1255/.

  13. Nandini Sundar, ‘Bastar, Maoism and Salwa Judum’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLI, No. 29, 22 July 2006, p. 3187.

  14. Freny Manecksha, India: Sexual Violence and Impunity, CETRI, 14 April 2016.

  15. ‘Dangerous Duty Children and the Chhattisgarh Conflict’, Human Rights Watch, 5 September 2008: www.hrw.org/report/2008/09/05/dangerous-duty/children-and-chhattisgarh-conflict.

  16. Sujan Dutta, ‘Triveni in air, Green Hunt on ground’, Telegraph, 4 October 2010.

  17. Steve Coll, ‘Manmohan Singh’, New Yorker, 24 November 2009.

  18. ‘Pak backtracks on sending ISI chief to India’, Hindustan Times, 29 November 2008.

  19. ‘What kind of story do you want?’, Open Magazine, 20 November 2010.

  20. Pavan Varma, The Great Indian Middle Class, p. 87.

  21. Sagarika Ghose, ‘A Raja says Vinod Rai was part of a political conspiracy against UPA 2’, Times of India, 19 January 2018.

  22. For a full list of the schemes, see: www.asuryaprakash.com/annexure1.html.

  23. ‘Our moral universe is shrinking: Sonia Gandhi’, Deccan Herald, 19 Nov 2010.

  24. ‘IAS officer Ashok Khemka transferred three days after he asked for Robert Vadra-DLF inquiry’, NDTV, 16 October 2012: www.ndtv.com/india-news/ias-officer-ashok-khemka-transferred-three-days-after-he-asked-for-robert-vadra-dlf-
inquiry-501872.

  25. Tushar Srivastava, ‘Quattrocchi goes home, CBI watches’, Hindustan Times, 16 August 2007.

  26. Narendra Modi’s Open Letter to Anna Hazare, 11 April 2011: www.narendramodi.in/narendra-modi’s-open-letter-to-anna-hazare-3922.

  27. Dean Nelson, ‘Fear and intimidation in Anna Hazare’s “model” village’, Telegraph, London, 25 August 2011.

  28. Technically, there were nine Indian citizens on the Forbes list of the world’s richest: Ruth David, ‘Welcome To The Trillion Dollar Club’, Forbes, 26 April 2007; ‘Indian millionaires zoom by 42,800’, Hindustan Times, 29 September 2010.

  29. Edward Gordon, Future Jobs: Solving the Employment and Skills Crisis, Praeger, Santa Barbara, 2013, p. 59.

  30. P.V. Narasimha Rao, A Long Way: Selected Speeches, D.C. Books, Kottayam, 2002, pp. 146–154.

  31. ‘Montek Singh Ahluwalia rules out 9 pc growth, says India doing well’, India Today, 4 October 2011.

  32. T.R. Andhyarujina, ‘An execution most foul’, Hindu, 19 February 2013.

  33. ‘Budget speech of Manmohan Singh’, 24 July 1991: www.indiabudget.gov.in/bspeech/bs199192.pdf.

  34. Amitava Kumar, ‘Central India’s Ugly Fight for Environmental Justice’, New Yorker, 10 February 2017.

  35. Kohli, ‘Politics of Economic Growth in India’.

  5. Cult

  1. ‘Nicolae Ceausescu, In Memoriam’, translated by Constantin Roman.

  2. ‘Birth of 2nd republic under Modi: Sanjaya Baru’, the Times of India, 27 July 2014.

  3. ‘Modi can never become PM, can sell tea: Mani Shankar Aiyar’, Indian Express, 17 January 2014.

  4. Vinod Jose, ‘The Emperor Uncrowned’, Caravan, 1 March 2012.

  5. Ross Colvin and Satarupa Bhattacharjya, ‘The remaking of Narendra Modi’, Reuters, 12 July 2013: https://in.reuters.com/article/india-modi-gujarat-bjp/special-report-the-remaking-of-narendra-modi-idINDEE96B00Y20130712.

  6. Jose, ‘The Emperor Uncrowned’.

  7. Human Rights Watch, ‘We Have No Orders to Save You: State Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in Gujarat’, Vol. 14, No. 3(c), 2002, pp. 15–17.

  8. Jose, ‘The Emperor Uncrowned’, p. 3.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Celia Dugger, ‘Religious Riots Loom Over Indian Politics’, New York Times, 27 July 2002.

  11. http://www.gujaratindia.com/whos-who/chief_ministers_gujara2.htm.

  12. Christophe Jaffrelot, Religion, Caste, and Politics in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2010, p. 408.

  13. Ibid, p. 402.

  14. Jose, ‘The Emperor Uncrowned’.

  15. Manas Dasgupta, ‘All accused acquitted in Pandya murder case’, Hindu, 29 August 2011.

  16. ‘Amit Shah headed extortion gang, CBI tells SC’, Hindustan Times, 9 March 2011.

  17. ‘The Stalkers: Amit Shah’s Illegal Surveillance Exposed’, Outlook, 15 November 2013.

  18. ‘Ex-CJI Sathasivam is Governor, jurists say it may lead to more ‘political intervention’, Indian Express, 4 September 2014.

  19. Binoy Prabhakar, ‘How an American lobbying company Apco Worldwide markets Narendra Modi to the world’, Economic Times, 9 December 2012.

  20. Sam Asher, Paul Novosad, Charlie Rafkin, ‘Intergenerational Mobility in India: Estimates from New Methods and Administrative Data’, September 2018: www.dartmouth.edu/~novosad/anr-india-mobility.pdf

  21. ‘Why India Needs Narendra Modi’, Financial Express, 20 October 2008.

  22. ‘Modi locks adoring business in bear hug—Tata leads the charge in showering praise’, Telegraph, 13 January 2009.

  23. ‘Modi PM material for Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal’, Economic Times, 15 January 2009.

  24. ‘Vibrant Gujarat: India Inc Invokes Gandhi to Praise Modi’, Outlook, 12 January 2011.

  25. ‘Modi is king of kings: Anil Ambani’, Hindustan Times, 11 January 2013.

  26. Ashutosh Varshney, ‘Modi the moderate’, Indian Express, 27 March 2014.

  27. Ashis Nandy, ‘Obituary of a Culture’, Seminar, May 2002.

  28. David Pilling, ‘Lunch with FT: Jagdish Bhagwati’, 17 April 2014.

  29. Gurcharan Das, ‘Secularism or Growth? The Choice is Yours’, Times of India, 6 April 2014.

  30. ‘Vote for BJP if you want revenge: Amit Shah at Muzaffarnagar’, Times of India, 5 April 2014.

  31. K. Balchand, ‘Modi fears a “pink revolution”’, Hindu, 3 April 2014.

  32. ‘Gandhi’s iconic charkha pose replaced by Modi’s in Khadi Gram Udyog calendar, diary’, India Today, 12 January 2017.

  33. ‘Catch them young?’, Business Standard, 4 September 2014.

  34. ‘Should we run relief camps? Open child producing centres?’, Outlook, 30 September 2002.

  35. Narendra Modi, Exam Warriors, Penguin, New Delhi, 2018.

  36. ‘Delhi University tells High Court it cannot disclose details of Narendra Modi’s degree’, Scroll, 28 February 2018: https://scroll.in/latest/870370/delhi-university-tells-high-court-it-cannot-disclose-details-of-narendra-modis-degree.

  37. Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, ‘RTI Activists Bat for Information Commissioner’, Wire, 19 January 2017: https://thewire.in/politics/rti-activists-bat-for-sridhar-acharyulu.

  38. ‘Modi-Obama “Mann ki Baat” to be available in e-book format’, Rediff, 28 January 2015: news.rediff.com/commentary/2015/jan/28/modiobama-mann-ki-baat-to-be-available-in-ebook-format/7ec9e071e97c3c4649733d148f9c5158.

  39. Andy Marino, Narendra Modi: A Political Biography, HarperCollins, Delhi, 2014, p. x.

  40. Ami Kazmin, ‘Narendra Modi’s mystery biographer’, Financial Times, 1 April 2014.

  41. Francis Elliott, ‘Spin doctor was paid for India book’, Times, 9 November 2015.

  42. Swati Mathur, ‘Mann ki Baat now in regional languages’, Times of India, 2 June 2017.

  43. For a deep investigation of Modi’s digital army, see Swati Chaturvedi, I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army, Juggernaut, Delhi, 2016.

  44. ‘How WhatsApp Fuels Fake News and Violence in India’, Wired, 12 December 2018: https://www.wired.com/story/how-whatsapp-fuels-fake-news-and-violence-in-india.

  45. Charu S. Kasturi, ‘Discovery of Nehru, staged by Sushma’, Telegraph, 4 August 2017.

  46. Liz Matthew, ‘Narendra Modi is God’s gift for India, messiah of the poor: Venkaiah Naidu’, Indian Express, 21 March 2016.

  47. ‘Sycophancy bug bites BJP leaders, hail Modi as ‘god’s gift’ and ‘messiah’, Business Standard, 21 March 2016.

  48. ‘Delhi election 2015: BJP launches ‘Selfie with Modi’ to woo young voters’, Times of India, 25 January 2015

  49. Poonam Mahajan, Twitter, 29 July 2018: https://twitter.com/poonam_mahajan/status/1023561279212990469.

  50. Suresh Prabhu, Twitter, 29 July 2018: https://twitter.com/sureshpprabhu/status/1023516637436280833.

  51. Suresh Fadnavis, Twitter, 28 July 2018: https://twitter.com/Dev_Fadnavis/status/1023284207882264576.

  52. Barack Obama, ‘Remarks by President Obama at India State Dinner’, 25 January 2015: obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/25/remarks-president-obama-india-state-dinner.

  6. Chaos

  1. Number of Branches and ATMs in India: www.gktoday.in/gk/number-of-branches-and-atms/

  2. Anto Antony and Iain Marlow, ‘ATMs, banks run out of cash as people grapple to replace Rs500, Rs1000 notes’, Mint, 11 November 2016.

  3. ‘Businessman dies of heart-attack after ban on Rs 500, Rs 1000 notes’, Financial Express, 10 November 2016.

  4. Abdul Jadid, ‘Stunned over new Rs 1,000 rule woman dies of shock outside bank in Gorakhpur’, Hindustan Times, 10 November 2016.

  5. Hamza Khan, ‘Jaipur: Infant dies, father says no cash for ambulance’, Indian Express, 20 Aug 2018.

  6. ‘Baby dies as parents had no cash to buy medicines in Vizag’, Times of India, 14 November 2016.

  7. ‘Demonetisation: Cash-starved farmer ends life in frustration in Raigarh’, First Post, 14 No
vember 2016: https://www.firstpost.com/india/demonetisation-cash-starved-farmer-ends-life-in-frustration-in-raigarh-3105098.html.

  8. ‘SBI cashier dies of heart attack in Bhopal amid rush to exchange notes’, Hindustan Times, 14 November 2016.

  9. Siva G., ‘Baby dies as parents had no cash to buy medicines in Vizag’, Times of India, 14 November 2014.

  10. ‘3-yr-old dies as father waits at bank; no cash for fee, student commits suicide’, Hindustan Times, 23 November 2016.

  11. Jatin Gandhi, ‘Give me 50 days over scrapped notes, punish me if problems persist: Modi’, Hindustan Times, 13 November 2016.

  12. Reserve Bank of India Annual Report, 29 August 2018: https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/AnnualReportPublications.aspx?Id=1235.

  13. PTI, ‘99.30% of demonetised money back in the system, says RBI report’, Economic Times, 30 August 2018.

  14. Manas Chakravarty, ‘Household savings grow highest in 7 years, but it’s mainly in cash’, Mint, 30 August 2018.

  15. Gayatri Nayak, ‘Cash still the king. Cash savings highest in a decade’, Economic Times, 30 August 2018.

  16. ‘India’s Economic Growth Slows Down in Fourth Quarter’, Wire, 31 May 2017, https://thewire.in/economy/q4-gdp-growth-india.

  17. Ananth Krishnan, ‘China media mocks India’s “GDP own goal”, criticises PM Modi’s demonetisation’, India Today, 2 June 2017.

  18. Shilpa Shaji, ‘Here are the 105 people who died in 45 days of demonetisation’, Narada News, 22 December 2016: naradanews.com/2016/12/here-are-the-97-people-who-died-in-37-days-of-demonetisation/.

  19. B. Baskar, ‘After the demonetisation tsunami’, Hindu Business Line, 16 April 2017.

  20. Tushar Dhara, ‘Narendra Modi Mocks Harvard Economists, Manmohan and Quotes GDP Figures at UP Election Rallies’, News18, 1 March 2017: www.news18.com/news/politics/pm-modi-mocks-harvard-economists-manmohan-and-quotes-gdp-stats-in-up-1354898.html.

  21. ‘Demonetisation “bitter medicine” to treat corruption’, Times of India, 20 November 2018.

  22. ‘Agriculture ministry says farmers were unable to buy seeds after demonetisation: Report’, Scroll, 21 November 2018: https://scroll.in/latest/902905/agriculture-ministrys-report-says-farmers-were-unable-to-buy-seeds-after-demonetisation-report.