He was a man of moderation in a fraternity of jingoistic nationalists; a peace visionary in a region riven by religious animosity; and a man who believed in India’s destiny and was ready to fight for it.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (93), who died on Thursday, will go down in history as a person who tried to end years of hostility with Pakistan and put development on the front burner of the country’s political agenda. He was also the first non-Congress Prime Minister to complete a full five-year term. 

Even though he lived the last 13 years of his life in virtual isolation, dogged by debilitating illnesses and bedridden, he has left an enduring legacy for the nation and the region where he was much loved and respected across the political spectrum and national boundaries, including in Pakistan. 

In the tumultuous period he presided over the destiny of the world’s largest democracy, Vajpayee stunned the world by making India a declared nuclear state and then almost went to war with Pakistan before making peace with it in the most dramatic fashion. In the process, his popularity came to match that of Indira Gandhi, a woman he admired for her guts even as he hated her politics. 

He also became the best-known national leader after Indira Gandhi and her father Jawaharlal Nehru.

After despairing for years that he would never become Prime Minister and was destined to remain an opposition leader all his life, he achieved his goal, but only for 13 days, from May 16-28, 1996, after his deputy, L.K. Advani, chose not to contest elections that year.

His second term came on March 19, 1998, and lasted 13 months, a period during which India stunned the world by undertaking a series of nuclear tests that invited global reproach and sanctions.

Although his tenure again proved short-lived, his and his government’s enhanced stature following the world-defying blasts enabled him to return as Prime Minister for the third time on October 13, 1999, a tenure that lasted a full five-year term. 

When finally he stepped down in May 2004, after an election that he was given to believe he would win, it marked the end of a long and eventful political career spanning six decades. 

Vajpayee had gone into these elections riding a personality cult that projected him as a man who had brought glory to the nation in unprecedented ways. The BJP’s election strategy rested on seeking a renewed mandate over three broad pillars of achievement that the government claimed — political stability in spite of the pulls and pressures of running a multi-party coalition; a “shining” economy that saw a dizzying 10.4 percent growth in the last quarter of the previous year; and peace with Pakistan that changed the way the two countries looked at each other for over 50 years.

The results of the elections could not have come as a greater shock to a man who was hailed for his achievements and who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 influential men of the decade. 

Success didn’t come easily to the charismatic politician, who was born on Christmas Day in 1924 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, into a family of moderate means. His father was a school teacher and Vajpayee would later recall his early brush with poverty.

He did his Masters in Political Science, studying at the Victoria College in Gwalior and at the DAV College in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, where he first contested, and lost, elections. He began his professional career as a journalist, working with Rashtradharma, a Hindi monthly, Panchjanya, a Hindi weekly, and two Hindi dailies, Swadesh and Veer Arjun. By then he had firmly embraced the ideals of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

But even as he struggled to win electoral battles, his command over Hindi, the lingua franca of the North Indian masses, his conciliatory politics and his riveting oratory brought him into public limelight.

His first entry into Parliament was in 1962 through the Rajya Sabha, the upper house. It was only in 1971 that he won a Lok Sabha election. He was elected to the lower house seven times and to the Rajya Sabha twice.

Vajpayee spent months in prison when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency rule in June 1975 and put her political opponents in jail. When the Janata Party took office in 1977, dethroning the Congress for the first time, he became the foreign minister. 

The lowest point in his career came when he lost the 1984 Lok Sabha polls, that too from his birthplace Gwalior, after Rajiv Gandhi won an overwhelming majority following his mother Indira Gandhi’s assassination. And the BJP he led ended up with just two seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha, in what looked like the end of the road for the right-wing party. In no time, Vajpayee was replaced and “eclipsed” by his long-time friend L.K. Advani.

Although they were the best of friends publicly, Vajpayee never fully agreed with Advani’s and the assorted Hindu nationalist groups’ strident advocacy of Hindutva, an ideology ranged against the idea of secular India. Often described as the right man in the wrong party, there were also those who belittled him as a moderate “mask” to a hardline Hindu nationalist ideology. Often he found his convictions and value systems at odds with the party, but the bachelor-politician never went against it.

It was precisely this persona of Vajpayee — one merged in Hindutva ideology yet seemingly not wholly willing to bow to it — that won him admirers cutting across the political spectrum. It was this trait that made him the Prime Minister when the BJP’s allies concluded they needed a moderate to steer a hardliner, pro-Hindu party.

He brought into governance measures that created for India a distinct international status on the diplomatic and economic fronts. In his third prime ministerial stint, Vajpayee launched a widely acclaimed diplomatic initiative by starting a bus service between New Delhi and Pakistan’s Lahore city. 

Its inaugural run in February 1999 carried Vajpayee and was welcomed on the border by his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif. It was suspended only after the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament that nearly led to a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The freeze between the two countries, including an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation on the border for nearly a year, was finally cracked in the spring of 2003 when Vajpayee, while in Kashmir, extended a “hand of friendship” to Pakistan. That led to the historic summit in January 2004 with then President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad — a remarkable U-turn after the failed summit in Agra of 2001. Despite the two men being so far apart in every way, Musharraf developed a strong liking for the Indian leader.

His unfinished task, one that he would probably rue, would be the peace process with Pakistan that he had vowed to pursue to its logical conclusion and a resolution of the Kashmir dispute. 

He was not known as “Atal-Ji”, a name that translates into firmness, for nothing. He could go against the grain of his party if he saw it deviate from its path. When Hindu hardliners celebrated the destruction of the 16th century Babri Mosque at Ayodhya, he was full of personal remorse for the apocalyptic action and called it — in a landmark interview to IANS — the “worst miscalculation” and a “misadventure”. He even despaired that “moderates have no place — who is going to listen to the voice of sanity?”

In his full five-year term, he successively carried forward India’s economic reforms programme with initiatives to improve infrastructure, including flagging off a massive national highway project that has become associated with his vision, went for massive privatisation of unviable state undertakings despite opposition from even within his own party.

While his personal image remained unsullied despite his long innings in the murky politics of this country, his judgment was found wanting when his government was rocked by an arms bribery scandal that sought to expose alleged payoffs to some senior members of his cabinet. His failure to speak up when members of his party and its sister organisations, who are accused of killing more than 1,000 Muslims in Gujarat, was questioned by the liberal fraternity who wondered aloud about his secular proclamations. He wanted then Chief Minister — now Prime Minister, Narendra Modi — to take responsibility for the riots and quit but was prevailed upon by others not to press his decision. 

A day before his party lost power, Vajpayee was quoted as saying in a television interview that if and when he stepped down he would like to devote his time to writing and poetry. But fate ruled otherwise. The man who once rued that “I have waited too long to be Prime Minister” found his last days in a world far removed from the adulation and attention — though across the nation people prayed for his well-being — surrounded only by care-givers and close family whom he even failed to recognise.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the country was on a new trajectory of growth due to initiatives in the last four years of his government and asserted that he was impatient to take the country ahead of many others in the world.

Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 72nd Independence Day, he took a dig at the previous UPA rule, saying if his government had continued with the same pace of development, the country would have taken decades to reach where it was today.

“Yes, I am impatient because many of the countries have moved forward. We have to move forward too. Malnutrition is a big problem in the country’s development. I am anxious to eradicate it.

“I am impatient to provide health cover to every poor person so that they can fight diseases. I am anxious to provide quality life to all citizens. I am eager because we have to lead knowledge-based fourth industrial revolution. I am eager because I want that the country uses its resources and potential,” he said.

Promising sanitation, housing, electricity, water, LPG, skills, health insurance and connectivity for all, Modi said towards the end of the speech that he wanted to create a new India for a better future.

“We have to make a new sunrise and take the country ahead of the skies and create a new India. We want to move ahead with the dream of reaching the crescendo of development. We want to progress more. There is no question of stopping or getting tired on the way,” he said.

The Prime Minister said India was earlier seen among the fragile five nations but now it had turned itself into a “land of reform, perform and transform”.

“We are all set for record economic growth. India’s voice is being heard effectively at the world stage. We are integral part of forums whose doors were earlier closed for us,” he said.

“The demand for higher MSP (minimum support price for farmers) was pending for years. From farmers to political parties to agriculture experts, everybody was asking about it but nothing happened. The decision was taken by our government to provide the MSP of 1.5 times of production cost.”

He said the armed forces veterans were demanding one rank, one pension but no one listened to them before the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.

He talked about the Goods and Services Tax (GST), saying it had given new confidence to small and big traders who “wholeheartedly embraced” the new tax regime despite “initial problems”. 

“Who did not want the passage of the GST? Yet, it was pending for years. Last year it became a reality. The OROP demand was pending for decades. The people of India, our brave Army personnel had faith in us and we were able to take a decision on OROP.”

Drawing a parallel between the pace of works during UPA and the NDA governments, he said: “If we had continued at the same pace at which toilets were being built in 2013, the pace at which electrification was happening, LPG gas cylinders were being distributed and optical fibres were being laid in 2013, then it would have taken us decades to complete them.

“The country is now feeling the change. As a result, we are making highways with a double speed, houses are being made in villages with four times more pace, there is record production, we are manufacturing record mobiles. Today we are buying more aeroplanes.

“It is the same land, same sky, sea, government offices and the country. But in the last four years, India has moved with a new zeal and therefore today India is constructing twice the highways and producing record crops.”

Cyber security experts on Tuesday questioned the preparedness of the Indian banks in case of a massive security breach involving funds, stressing that state-of-the-art security systems are the need of the hour.

Hackers siphoned off a whopping Rs 94.42 crore from the Pune-headquartered Cosmos Cooperative Bank Ltd — the second oldest and second biggest cooperative bank in India — to foreign and domestic bank accounts.

According to Nikhil Bedi, Partner, Deloitte India, robust security systems and incidence response capabilities are imperative for all companies and financial institutions that are custodians of customer data and customer assets, including funds. 

“While there is growing awareness to regularly update an organisation’s cyber preparedness and defence mechanisms, a large number of institutions wake up to this reality only post an incident which often leads to a loss of reputation and/or financial misappropriation,” Bedi said in a statement.

In 2016, a malware-related security breach was reportedly detected in the non-SBI ATM network, following which the public sector lender blocked around six lakh debit cards.

An estimated 30 lakh-plus debit cards issued by various public or private banks were exposed to a potential risk of data breach.

Cyber attacks today are multi-pronged and can start with a malware being downloaded into a system or via a web application being hacked. 

“This is a big challenge specially for banks, where it is no longer sufficient to protect just your data centres and your headquarters, you have to protect ATMs and branch offices in addition to securing incoming data even from affiliated organisations,” cautioned Anshuman Singh, Senior Director, Product Management at Barracuda Networks Inc. 

US-based Barracuda Networks is a leading provider of cloud-enabled security and data protection solutions.

In the case of Cosmos Bank, a proxy switch was created and all the fraudulent payment approvals were passed through the proxy switching system. Normally, the Core Banking System (CBS) receives debit card payment requests via its “Switching System”.

According to bank officials, the malware attack was on the Switch System which is operative for the payment gateway of Visa/Rupay debit cards and not on the Cosmos Bank’s CBS so the customers’ accounts and their balances were not affected.

The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) domain remains most vulnerable to cyber threats.

“Regulators need to develop a risk management framework, including adequate threat response strategies and define the chain of command in case of a security breach,” said Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer at Pune-based Quick Heal Technologies Limited.

“Hiring chief information security officers must be made mandatory for players in the BFSI domain. The sector should also run regular security protocols and simulations to test their incident response capabilities,” Katkar.

State-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will fly an Indian astronaut into space for the first time by 2022, an official said on Wednesday.

“All the critical technologies for the human space mission are being developed. We will pursue it to put an Indian astronaut in space by 2022,” a senior ISRO official told IANS, citing the space agency Chairman K.Sivan’s statement.

Addressing the nation on the occasion of Independence Day earlier in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that an Indian would be sent to space by 2022.

So far, only the US, Russia and China have launched human spaceflights.

ISRO Chairman Sivan earlier said a mission document for India’s human space programme was in the making.

“Critical technologies are being developed for our human space programme, as it is India’s dream to put a man in space. A mission document is in the making,” Sivan had said on July 7 at an event here.

The space agency on July 5 carried out a successful maiden pad abort tests at its spaceport Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh for the safe escape of the crew in an emergency.

“The technology is very essential for our manned missions in the future,” Sivan had said.

The crew escape system is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.

The ISRO Chairman, however, admitted that the space agency was “not close” to a human spaceflight yet.

“We are not close to that. We need to work a lot towards achieving the dream of putting a man in space,” Sivan added.

NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court will hear on August 20 a plea by a group of serving Army officers against the dilution of AFSPA that gives immunity to military personnel from prosecution for actions in disturbed and insurgency-hit areas.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra agreed to hear the plea after advocate Aishwarya Bhati sought an early hearing.

The petitioners have sought specific guidelines to protect military personnel from criminal proceedings for bona-fide actions done in the discharge of official duties in areas infested with insurgents and witnessing proxy wars against India.

The petitioners range from Section Commanders to Commanding Officers who lead section, platoon, company, battalion made of 10 to 1,000 men each.

They contended that the protection provided by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) does not confer any special right to a soldier for himself, but facilitates his functioning and operations in extraordinary circumstances of proxy war, insurgency, armed hostility, ambushes, and covert and overt operations.

Drawing a distinction between routine policing and military operations in disturbed areas, they contended that absolute protection for bona-fide actions of soldiers in extraordinary situations is imperative to enable them to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently.

This protection from criminal prosecution for bona-fide actions of a soldier in the course of military operations in disturbed areas, the petition says, is sine qua non for the protection of the country’s sovereignty and integrity.

The officers sought a court direction that “protection of persons acting in good faith under the AFSPA is sacrosanct with the sovereignty and integrity of the nation” and that “no prosecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Central government….”

They further averred that it was the Army alone which is familiar with the dynamics of these operations, and was capable of probing into allegation of criminality, misuse, abuse, or of excessive use of power by men in uniform.

“Civil police or even the Central Bureau of Investigation can’t even be expected to be in the know of complete picture,” they claimed.

The petition by Col Amit Kumar and others is rooted in a spate of complaints and FIRs against military personnel deployed in disturbed areas of the northeast and trouble- torn Jammu and Kashmir and the same being entertained by courts.

In a virtual election speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday projected himself as an impatient agent of change against the backdrop of “docile and inefficient” governance during the Congress-led UPA rule and promised housing, power, water, sanitation and healthcare for all in his mission to take the country to new heights.

He also announced that the ambitious Prime Minister’s Jan Aarogya Abhiyan (PMJAA), dubbed “Modicare”, for health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh each to 10 crore families will be launched on September 25 on the 102nd birth anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the BJP’s predecessor.

Making his last Independence Day address to the nation ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Modi said there was “senseless” criticism against him but asserted he was impatient and restless to take the country ahead of many others which had overtaken India. 

And breaking his silence in the context of recent cases of rape and sexual exploitation in welfare homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Modi said there was a need to attack such a mindset by putting the fear of the law that had been made stringent. He said law was supreme and no one could take it into their hands. 

Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, Modi repeated the lines from his last year’s August 15 speech that the Kashmir problem can be resolved only by embracing its people, not with bullets or abuses. He recalled former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s line `Kashmiriyat, Jamhooriyat, Insaniyat’ (eclectic Kahmiri culture, democracy and humaneness) and said this was the only way forward.

Reaffirming his mantra of “sabka saath, sabka vikas” (take everyone along, development for all), the Prime Minister said there would be no discrimination against any section and there would be no nepotism and favouritism.

“I want to reiterate my pledges – housing for all, power for all, cooking (gas) for all, water for all, sanitation for all, skills for all, insurance for all, connectivity for all. We want to go ahead with these programmes.

“People make senseless criticism against me. But whatever may be said, I want to publicly acknowledge that I am restless because several countries have marched ahead and I want to take the country ahead of them. I am impatient because children are still suffering from malnutrition. I am eager to provide quality of life and ease of living to country men. I am impatient to provide health cover to each of the poor so that they can fight against diseases. I am eager because we have to lead knowledge-based fourth industrial revolution,” he said.

Modi turned poetic before winding up his nearly 80-minute speech, saying that the country’s fortunes were being transformed.

“We have to make a new dawn and create a new India. We want to move ahead with the dream of reaching the crescendo of development.”

Attacking the Congress but not by name, he said if comparison was made of the speed of governance in the last four years, people would be surprised.

“If toilets were built at the speed of 2013, several decades would have gone to reach the present stage. Rural electrification would have taken two decades. Taking LPG connection to poor women would have taken 100 years. Generations would have gone to take optical fibre to its present levels. There are a lot of expectations, a lot of needs. The country is feeling a change in the last four years. There is new awareness, new enthusiasm.”

He said four times more rural houses had been built, there was a record number of mobile manufacturers, record number of aeroplanes had been procured and record number of tractors sold. 

“The demand for higher MSP (minimum support price) for farmers was pending for years. From farmers to political parties to agriculture experts, everybody was asking about it but nothing happened. The decision was taken by our government to provide the MSP of 1.5 times of production cost.”

Modi said the Army, which reaches out to people in case of natural calamities, also conducts surgical strikes to give a befitting replies to its enemies, an apparent reference to the surgical strike conducted on terror launch pads across Line of Control in 2016. 

In a strong election pitch, Modi reached out to Dalits, poor, youth, farmers, women, fishermen, security forces, middle class and upper middle class by referring to the work done by his government and his endeavour to improve their lives.

Modi also attacked the opposition over the non-passage of triple talaq bill in the just-concluded monsoon session of Parliament and promised to do justice to Muslim women by getting it passed early. 

Alleging that the previous governments had allowed a climate of corruption to thrive, the Prime Minister said his government had eliminated power brokers from Delhi and plugged loopholes in various schemes like Public Distribution System that had led to savings of Rs 90,000 crore. “The corrupt will not be forgiven.”

The measures initiated by the government had also led to near doubling of direct tax assesses from nearly four crore to 6.75 crore and indirect tax assesses from 75 lakh to 1.16 crore on account of introduction of GST apart from barring over three lakh suspicious companies in the anti-black money drive. 

He announced that India would launch a manned mission in space by 2022 — it could be a man or woman — and a satellite dedicated to help fishermen.

The Prime Minister said India was earlier seen among the fragile five nations because of policy paralysis but now it had turned itself into a “land of reform, perform and transform”.

“We are all set for record economic growth. India’s voice is being heard effectively at the world stage. We are integral parts of forums whose doors were earlier closed for us.”

NEW DELHI : Asserting that India was at the cusp of achieving many of its long-awaited goals, President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday said “contentious issues and extraneous debates” should not distract the people.

In his address to the nation on the eve of 72nd Independence Day, he referred to various issues and said these may have held true 10 or 20 years ago or even earlier to some extent but “even so we are at a juncture in our history that is different from any period that we have so far experienced”. 

“We are at the cusp of achieving many of our long-awaited goals. Universal access to electricity, the elimination of open defecation, the elimination of homelessness, the very elimination of extreme poverty is achievable and attainable. We are at a pivotal moment. Let contentious issues and extraneous debates not distract us,” he said.

Kovind said if freedom was defined in narrow political terms, then August 15, 1947 marks a closure. 

“But freedom is a broader concept. It is not fixed and finite. Freedom is a constant and relentless endeavour. Even decades after 1947, each one of us can contribute in the manner of a freedom fighter. We can do so if we expand the frontiers of freedom and of opportunity for our fellow Indians and our beloved India.”

Referring to the resolve of various sections in nation building, the President said that the reality was that every Indian who does his or her job with sincerity and commitment, who contributes to society by being true to a professional ethic, be it the doctor’s ethic, the nurse’s ethic, the teacher’s ethic, the public servant’s ethic, the factory worker’s ethic, the business person’s ethic, the ethic of those who have to care for ageing parents – each of these and many others are in their own way upholding the values of freedom. 

“They are providing the fruits and goods and services of freedom to fellow citizens. Every citizen of India who does his or her duty sincerely, fulfils a personal and professional obligation and keeps to a given word is, at a fundamental level, upholding the principles of our freedom struggle,” he said. 

“I would argue that every Indian who does not jump the queue and respects the civic space and rights of those ahead in the line also lives up to the principles of our freedom struggle. It’s a very small gesture. Let us try and abide by it.” 

Kovind said the freedom that came at midnight on August 14-15, 1947 was the result of years and decades and centuries of sacrifice and valour on the part of India’s ancestors and freedom fighters. 

“They could easily have compromised and settled for some personal benefit, but they did not. Their commitment to India – to a free, sovereign, plural and egalitarian India – was absolute. It was my privilege to honour these freedom fighters on the anniversary of ‘Quit India Day’ on August 9 in Rashtrapati Bhavan.”

The President said after four years India would be marking the 75th anniversary of Independence and in less than 30 years the people would celebrate the 100th anniversary of India as a free nation. 

“The decisions we take today, the foundations we lay today, the projects we undertake today, the social and economic investments we make today – whether for the immediate future or for the medium term – will determine where we stand. The pace of change and development in our country is rapid and appreciable. And as per our civilisational traditions, it is driven by our people, by civil society and by a partnership between citizen and government. Its focus, again in keeping with the essence of Indian thought, is on a better life for the less fortunate,” he said. 

He also referred to the beginning of commemoration of the 150th birthday on Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 and said Gandhi did not just lead India’s freedom struggle. 

“He was and still is our moral compass. In my capacity as the President of India, I have been fortunate to have travelled around the world, particularly to a few countries of Africa. Everywhere, across continents, Gandhiji is mentioned, cherished and remembered as an icon for all humanity. He is the embodiment of India,” he said.

Recalling Gandhi’s cleanliness campaign along with his wife Kasturba in Bihar’s Champaran even in the middle of struggle for freedom, the President quoted him as saying: “Struggle was not just for political power but for empowering the poorest of the poor, educating the uneducated and ensuring the right to a dignified life.”

He also referred to Gandhi’s principle of non-violence and said each Indian should adopt his ideas and maxims in everyday work and conduct.

“Together we can eliminate, illiteracy and inequality. We can and we must do this together. The government has a leading role but not the sole role. Let us use the government’s programmes and projects to further our own efforts. Let us make that sense of ownership our motivation,” the President said.

It is often said Chhattisgarh lives in two eras—modern and traditional. The North and the South of the State are dominated by indigenous groups who preserve their culture fiercely, and the fast developing Central plains. 

To give a glimpse into lives of the tribal communities of Bastar, Southern part of the State, and Surguja, the northern part, the Chhattisgarh government has created an open air museum in the heart of Naya Raipur.  

Purkhauti Muktangan, a creation of artisans portraying the cultural heritage of Chhattisgarh, has become a centre of attraction for the locals, particularly the youth, with hundreds visiting the place every day. 

Visitors are greeted to a huge entrance Singh Dewdi—a replica of the Jagdalpur palace– leading to Maria Path depicting the rich tribal art and culture. There is an ornamental Chhattisgarh Park and an entertainment park dotted with statues of freedom fighters.

Once completed, the museum will have two distinct parts depicting the rich richness of Bastar and Surguja regions. Purkhauti also has space for a workshop for demonstrations of living traditional knowledge system of the State.

The exhibits created so far include a traditional dwelling of Rajwar community of Surguja with clay walls painted in bright colours.  The boundary wall of the museum depicts local and traditional myths. 

“We are in the process of developing Aamcho Bastar (Our Bastar) to showcase the cultural heritage of tribal communities. Aamcho Bastar is being developed to display the glimpses from the life-style of the tribes of Bastar– the region known for its indigenous groups people and culture, not just only in India, but also throughout the world,’’ says Ms  Niharika Barik Singh, Secretary, Department of Culture. 

Till a few years back, Bastar district was larger than Kerala in area, but now it has been divided into seven administrative districts — Bastar, North Bastar (Kanker), Kondagaon, Sukma, Bijapur, South Bastar (Dantewada) and Narnyanpur. This division has been done more for better administration, otherwise as far as the cultural spectrum is concerned, Bastar still remains a singular cultural region. 

Aamcho Bastar is being developed with the co-curation of the tribal and folk artisans of region. In the first phase, nearly one and a half dozen exhibits have been created including those of archaeological importance. Traditional tribal dwellings, youth houses, and tribal shrines exhibiting the traditional and cultural patterns of the folk and tribal communities of Bastar give a real life experience of the tribal living. 

The world’s longest celebrations of Bastar Dussehra – spread over 75 days–has also been created, with the area landscaped by baked clay tiles made by the traditional potters of the region.

“We want to develop Muktangan as an important tourist destination in the coming years,’’ Ms Singh says adding that this would not only help to keep the tribal art and craft alive but also promote it. 

All the exhibits put up at the museum have been prepared on the basis of the myths, epics, traditional folk-history and knowledge-system as known and expressed by the respective folk and tribal artisans who have created these. 

Of particular interest at the museum are Ghotul – Maria youth house—where young girls and boys informally received knowledge on economic, social and cultural life. This is particularly common among the Maria tribes in Kondagaon and Narayanpur districts of Bastar region. Ghotul is also used as a place for night stay. 

The Ghotul has also promoted the artistic creativity of the Maria artists and artisans. There are two rooms and one veranda in this structure, which is made of wooden pillars. The roof is of the clay tiles. Gedi dance stilts and musical instruments used by the inmates have also been displayed at their respective places.

The Bastar Dussehra festival is one of the finest examples of the mutual affection and collaboration between the king of Bastar and his subjects. The kings have attached the local people from various parts belonging to different social communities of this area with this festival, basically a ritual devoted to the Bastar royal family’s deity, Danteshwari. 

This festival is believed to be festival running for 75 days –longest duration anywhere known in the world. This festival is not only famous as a festival of the king, but also as the festival of entire Bastar region. Various rituals of Bastar Dashahara have been displayed at the museum by artisans from Kondagaon as per the folk beliefs and myths known to them, and to their other community members. 

The annual budget for the years 2015-16 & 2016-17 was Rs. 3.25 crore that was increased to Rs 5.10 crore in the current financial year. 

The Department of Culture is now focussing on the northern part of Chhattisgarh known as a Surguja region. Surguja has five districts — Surguja, Koria, Balrampur, Surajpur and Jashpur. These districts are famous for their tribal culture, heritage, forests, high lands and various festivals. The replica and models are prepared by the artisans from these regions which ensures that the money goes to them. 

Uraon, Pando, Korwa, Kudukh, Majhwar, Birhora are some of the primitive tribe of Surguja. They live in the forest and high land villages of the district. Rajwar and Kanwar are famous for their terracotta craft. 

They decorate their houses with different kind of terracotta work such as decorated frame work and terracotta figurine of animal and birds in their residents.

It is, perhaps, unthinkable in today’s internet age to visualise bringing out a newspaper in the early 60s from a place without any connectivity –no roads and no telephones.

The newspaper not only came out, it flourished and is running into its 60^th year now. Dandakaranya Samachar, often referred to as the spokesman of Dandakaranya, was started by a young journalist Tushar Kanti Bose whose family had migrated to India following Partition.

Given land in the Dandakaranya to settlea, Mr Bose was a journalist who had worked with several newspapers such as Jugantar and Amrit Bazaar Patrika before he started his own publication on January 12, 1959.

At that point Dandakaranya was a tribal populated areas comprising of , undivided Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh, Koraput and Kalahandi districts of Orissa and Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh as well as Chandrapur district of Maharashtra. It was spread over 80,000sq miles with Jagdalpur the district headquarter of Bastar in then Madhya Pradesh. Bastar is now in Chhattisgarh.  

“We started as a multi-lingual weekly newspaper in Hindi, English and Halbi (local dialect of Bastar) making it a unique production of its type. It was particularly popular among the people working in different projects under the erstwhile Dandakaranya Development Authority and Dandakaranya-Bolangir-Kirandul (DBK) Railways and people in the adjoining areas,’’ explains Mr Bose, who is now the Editor-in-Chief. His wife, Manikuntala Bose is now the Editor.     

“It was the first newspaper of the region started amidst the lack and shortage of fundamental amenities needed for a newspaper such as infrastructure, skilled manpower, raw materials and many other things. Inspite of all these hurdles, we have managed to sustain the newspaper for 60 glorious years,’’ the couple point out while recalling the difficulties they encountered while bringing out the publication as there were no telephones, electricity and other infrastructure. 

“But we have brought out the newspaper for 60 years without a break,’’ they say. 

What started as a bi-weekly in 1980 and then to a daily on 12^th January, 1985. “We had to discontinue the Halbi and English editions because of lack of readership and even writers were difficult to find. So we stuck to Hindi which became very popular as it was the only newspaper of the region at that time,’’ Mr Bose says. 

On 15^th August 1994 Dandakaranya Samachar became the first daily to be printed in Web Offset Machine in any tribal district of the country and Manikuntala Bose who took over as the Editor of the newspaper became the first lady Editor of any daily newspaper in the country. Mr.Tushar Kanti Bose became the Editor in Chief from the day. 

On 12th January 2015 after playing various roles at various levels, the couple’s son Bishwaroop Bose assumed the role of Executive Editor of the newspaper. Today Dandakaranya Samachar is being published simultaneously from Jagdalpur (Bastar) and Raipur with multi colour supplements covering whole of Chhattisgarh and Orissa, and competes with many other publications in and outside of Bastar. The publication has brought out special numbers to commemorate the history of the newspaper.  

“Dandakaranya Samachar has followed the motto “Independent Thought, Impartial Expression” ever since it came into existence. We have kept ourselves free from political influence though most Chief Ministers – of undivided Madhya Pradesh and now Chhattisgarh—do call on me and take my advice. But all this has never influenced my brand of journalism,’’ says Mr Bose.

Dealing with the Left Wing Extremists was not easy for the newspaper. “There were pulls and pressures from the naxalites with threats to life also, but we have always tried to strike a balance and stand with the truth,’’ the couple explain. 

Dandakaranya Samachar has never limited itself to news articles only but has always highlighted and encouraged the educative and social awakening programmes to enlighten the people of the region. It has also encouraged the literary beginners by providing space for their writings etc. and thus paving a way for many of them to earn state and country wide fame. 

A teacher at heart, Mrs Bose became the Principal of a girl’s school in Jagdalpur when she came here after marriage, but gradually started her own school in the town. “I had nothing to do with journalism when I came here. I learnt writing from my husband. I began with writing articles and then tried my hand at editorials,’’ she says while recalling how the couple had sold the newspaper themselves outside their office on the morning following former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s death.

“I used to cycle several kilometres to gather news and it was a struggle to get the telephone line through,’’ Mr Bose says. “Lots of things have changed since the time we came here. There were no colonies, no infrastructure worth its name and people were so simple,’’ he says while narrating an incident when his car broke down on the roadside. Since it was late, he could not arrange for a mechanic, so he asked a local to keep an eye on the vehicle in the night. When the couple went to the spot with the mechanic, he saw the person at the same spot where he was the previous night. He the person took just Rs 20! Such was the sincerity. 

Now, the next wave of change will happen when the Nagarnar Steel Plant becomes functional in a couple of months from now as it is likely to bring jobs and would result in development. “However, I hope it doesn’t kill the traditional art and craft of Bastar.’’

Muthuvel Karunanidhi was one of the last links to the Dravidian movement that ushered in the rise of backward classes in politics and the end of Congress rule in Tamil Nadu five decades ago on the plank of social justice.

A five-time Chief Minister, the 94-year-old Karunanidhi, who strode the public life of Tamil Nadu like a colossus, also played a key role in national politics when he aligned with Indira Gandhi in 1971 and reaped rich rewards in elections. 

But he staunchly opposed the Emergency of 1975-77 during which his government was dismissed on corruption charges. He was banished to the opposition ranks till the death of his friend-turned-foe and iconic film hero M.G. Ramachandran or MGR in December 1987.

Under Karunanidhi, the DMK occupied a prime position in the UPA governments at the Centre in 2004 and 2009 and earlier in the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpyee, an alignment that surprised many given the party’s Dravidian moorings.

He was a wily politician who succeeded his mentor C.N. Annadurai or ‘Anna’ as Chief Minister in 1969 and kept a stranglehold on the party and government. He remained the President of the DMK for nearly 50 years, a rare feat in any democratic country. 

Always sporting dark glasses, which became his trademark identity, and in later years a yellow stole, which critics said was against the atheism he preached.

With the death of his arch rival J. Jayalalithaa in 2016 and his departure now, Tamil Nadu is left with a void.

Born in Tirukkuvalai in the erstwhile Thanjavur district on June 3, 1924, Karunanidhi was a multifaceted personality — journalist, playwright, script writer — whose fiery dialogues as an iconoclast in films unleashed changes in Tamil Nadu’s social scene.

He joined the Dravidian movement as a teenager under the tutelage of the late social reformer ‘Periyar’ E.V. Ramasamy and Anna. 

‘Kalaignar’, as Karunanidhi was called for his proficiency in arts and literature, fashioned theatre and cinema in a way that gave a fillip to the Dravidian movement and the rise of DMK as a major pole in Tamil Nadu. 

Karunanidhi’s political fortunes rose when Anna broke away from the DK to float the DMK in 1949. The box office hit of Tamil movie ‘Parasakthi’ for which he wrote the script and a ‘rail roko’ agitation in Kallakudi near Tiruchirapalli made him known throughout the state.

He ascended to the DMK throne and the Chief Ministership following the death of party founder Annadurai in 1969.

Karunanidhi had the party in his strong grip till the end despite presiding over two major splits and being out of power continuously between 1977 and 1989.

Born in a poor Isai Vellalar (a backward caste) family, he was named Dakshinamurthy by his god-fearing parents Muthuvel and Anjugam. He later changed that to Karunanidhi, a Tamil name shorn of any Brahminical or Sanskrit tinge.

He also took part in the anti-Hindi agitations of 1937-40 and published a handwritten newspaper ‘Manavar Nesan’ (Friend of Students) and later formed the first student wing of the Dravidian movement, Tamil Nadu Manavar Mandram.

The anti-Hindi agitation was revived by the DMK in 1965, leading to massive anti-Congress sentiments amid much violence. 

Karunanidhi also published ‘Murasoli’, a monthly which grew to become a weekly and the DMK’s official daily. Last year it celebrated its platinum jubilee. 

He contested his first Assembly election in 1957 from Kulithalai successfully and since then has not lost any of the 13 elections he contested.

His fortunes gained further strength when the DMK won the 1967 elections and Annadurai made Karunanidhi the Minister of Public Works.

After Anna’s death in 1969, Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister. He led the DMK to a landslide win in 1971. 

Bad times started soon after. Perceiving the popularity of movie hero and party leader MGR as a future threat to him, Karunanidhi began sidelining him and ousted him in 1972.

MGR floated the AIADMK that took power in 1977. He cultivated the Congress well — sharing liberally the Lok Sabha seats while retaining his hold on the Assembly — to effectively consign the DMK to the opposition benches.

DMK’s fortunes revived in 1989 when it won handsomely assisted by a split in AIADMK, with one faction led by its founder’s widow Janaki Ramachandran and the other by Jayalalithaa.

However, in 1991, the DMK government was dismissed in the wake of heightened activities in Tamil Nadu of Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers whose vocal supporter he was. After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination by a LTTE suicide bomber in May 1991, the AIADMK under Jayalalithaa swept to power.

The DMK suffered a second split in 1993 when Karunanidhi saw fiery speaker Vaiko as a threat to his son M.K. Stalin’s ascendancy in the party and expelled him.

After that it was a see-saw battle with people choosing DMK and AIADMK alternatively. In 2006, the DMK was voted back to power for its populist promises.

In 2011 Karunanidhi promised more, but the DMK lost the battle. In 2016 too, it suffered the same fate.

A staunch opponent of Congress and its dynastic rule during earlier days, Karunanidhi later changed tact and paved the way for his progenies’ progress within and outside the party.

He brought his sons — through his second wife Dayalu – M.K. Alagiri and M.K.Stalin — into the party. Alagiri became Union Minister while Stalin was declared the political heir. However Alagiri was dismissed from the party later for anti-party activities.

Karunanidhi made Kanimozhi, his daughter by his third wife Rajathi, a Rajya Sabha member.

After the death of Murasoli Maran, his nephew, conscience keeper and the party’s face in Delhi, Karunanidhi got the former’s second son Dayanidhi Maran a Cabinet post in the central ministry in 2004 and 2009.

With coalitions becoming the norm at the Centre, the DMK started siding with BJP and Congress to get cabinet berths.

It was the Sarkaria Commission which first stamped Karunanidhi as corrupt in the matter of allotting tenders for the old Veeranam water project. 

Though Karunanidhi was jailed several times during his long political innings, what shocked many was his midnight arrest by the Jayalalithaa regime in 2001 on corruption charges.

His wife Dayalu and daughter Kaimozhi were questioned by the CBI over corruption charges. 

When the Sethusamudram Canal Project got mired in controversy, Karunanidhi shocked the nation by wondering aloud whether Lord Rama was an engineer to build bridge across the sea. 

Karunanidhi donated his home at Gopalapuram to a trust to convert it into a hospital for poor after his and his wife Dayalu’s lifetime.

Karunanidhi is survived by his two wives Dayalu and Rajathi, sons M.K. Muthu, Alagiri, Stalin and M.K. Tamilarasu and daughters S. Selvi and Kanimozhi and grandchildren.

(Agency)