Sumit Chakravartty was a gentle crusader who practised journalism fearlessly
As a young man, Sumit had the unenviable task of living up to his parents' legacy. His mother, Renu Chakravartty, was elected thrice to the Lok Sabha and emerged as a 'striking' parliamentarian and trade union leader. She was the niece of B C Roy, first Chief Minister of West Bengal, who inspired her to take up political work. Both parents shared the Oxbridge connection and had joined the British Communist Party as students. His father, Nikhil Chakravartty, founded Mainstream in 1962. Over the years, it became a platform for critical discourse in the country. He was the 'father figure' for the press freedom movement; whether it was the Emergency (1975-77) or the Defamation Bill (1989), he always led from the front. He declined the Padma Bhushan in 1990, saying 'journalists should not be identified with the establishment'.
Sumit's legacy brought high expectations, and public scrutiny. He was Patriot's Moscow correspondent and worked with The Daily before joining Mainstream. He came out with flying colours by combining journalism and activism. His journalism fostered informed debate and gave space to diverse viewpoints, while his activism was driven by values of democracy, secularism, scientific temper and Gandhian antyodaya. From Singur to Bhima Koregaon — statements, appeals, reports and documents were featured in Mainstream.
Sumit was a one-man army. We had launched the Working Group on Alternative Strategies (WGRAS) — a voluntary civil society initiative — in March 1992 to work on policy alternatives for an equitable development paradigm. Sumit was a founder member of its core group, and I was its convener. But we were soon overtaken by events. With the destruction of the Babri Masjid, our full attention turned to communal harmony. Senior journalist Dileep Padgaonkar had appealed for the Prime Minister to lead a citizens' march on Rajpath on January 26, 1993, for communal harmony, similar to the one held on January 26, 1963, after the Chinese aggression. We waited, but nothing was happening. So, on the night of January 25, 1993, WGRAS issued an appeal, calling for a citizens' march. It was successfully completed from Vijay Chowk to Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate, and we sent out a very positive signal across the country.
In 2004, I experienced Sumit's incredible integrity as an editor. He published an article I had written about a top-notch politico's about-turn from his professed views. Notwithstanding the bitterness it caused in his relationship with the politico, Sumit remained resolute in my defence even when he came under vehement personal attack.
In 2008, a documentary film project of mine was facing rough weather. One day we met at the India International Centre and he said he wanted to talk to me. We walked to Lodhi Garden and sat on a bench. Sumit took out his chequebook and wrote out a cheque of Rs 2 lakh for me. I protested, but he would not listen. 'I know the problem you are facing; give it back when you can,' he said. That was the man, helpful to a fault, and one who would internalise the problems of his close associates as his own.
Sumit donated the print issues of Mainstream from 1962 to 2020 to the Archives of Contemporary India at Ashoka University. His spirited journalism-activism, in which he invested his gentle, simple, sensitive, grounded and noble lifeblood, has now moved into the digital space and is published every week.
The writer is editor, Citizens First Television, and convener, Working Group on Alternative Strategies, New Delhi
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Indian Express
41 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Gaurav Gogoi at Idea Exchange: ‘Victims want to hear an honest admission of government's responsibility… Nehru is not to blame for Pahalgam'
Gaurav Gogoi, Deputy Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha and Assam Congress President, on holding the government accountable in Parliament and their challenges in Assam's Assembly elections. The session was moderated by Manoj CG, Chief of National Political Bureau. Manoj CG: In Parliament, we saw the debate in both Houses on Operation Sindoor. What are the answers you didn't get from the government? Simple, who is responsible for Pahalgam? And, does this government have a sense of responsibility? We have not seen any form of responsibility — be it an apology to the people of India for failing them or a resignation, not even in the form of an admission. The kind of statement that the L-G Manoj Sinha made, what the Home Minister said in his one-hour speech and the Prime Minister in his two-hour speech about Pandit Nehru — Pandit Nehru did not cause Pahalgam. The UPA certainly did not cause Pahalgam and neither did the late Dr Manmohan Singh or Sonia ji. What people of India, the victims of Pahalgam and Poonch, needed to hear from their government was an honest admission of failure, an honest introspection on their responsibility and accountability which, I think, BJP in its hubris totally brushed over. Secondly, the military operation was different compared to the Balakot air strike. Here, as per our top military generals, we faced the Pakistani Air Force backed by Chinese technology and Turkish military technology. Therefore, the rules of engagement had changed between Balakot and Operation Sindoor. There has been admission by top military generals in various Indian public fora for the need for modernisation, for upgradation. Normally, we would have had this discussion in the previous budget session. When we'd asked for a discussion on the demand for grants for defence, it was denied. The government and the defence minister could have been far clearer on this. They are only preaching to their own hardcore base and blaming the decisions of past prime ministers for their failures in the present. Manoj CG: The LOP Rahul Gandhi asking the PM to show courage and call President Donald Trump a liar, comes at a time when India is negotiating a tough trade deal with the US. It's a complex process. Don't you think the Opposition should also factor that in and give the government that diplomatic space? What has the government achieved by adopting its present negotiating stance? They have not achieved condemnation from the international community on Pakistan. If you look at the 26/11 reactions from the world condemned and linked terrorism with Pakistan. But this time, you got a condemnation of terror from the world but nobody linked terror and Pakistan. Everybody asked India and Pakistan to exercise restraint. In a way, we got hyphenated again. Something that we managed to escape in the last two decades, that India and Pakistan are not on the same plane. Please de-hyphenate us, but the world hyphenated us. And talking about bilateral investment and trade with the US, the President (Trump) is hosting the brain behind Pakistan state-sponsored terrorism, which is the Pakistani armed forces. And the kind of language that the President is using is increasingly hostile. They said that they might invest in the crude oil production of Pakistan. So, what has this diplomacy achieved? What we are telling the government is to grow a spine. If you really want to practise the 56-inch diplomacy that you boast of, back up your hubris. The Opposition since the beginning has been supportive of the government on Pakistan and we are also telling them to stand up to President Trump, for the kind of insult to our Indian Air Forces. Manoj CG: A couple of days ago, the US President said the Indian economy is dead. Do you agree with this? We are in the middle of a bubble right now. I am in the Finance Standing Committee and I look at numbers closely, be it investment numbers, consumption, saving or purchasing numbers. And if it were not for the government, investing in highways where there is not enough traffic, investing in airports where flights cost Rs 15,000 – Rs16,000, for the government borrowing and spending, then our economy would not be firing at all. Our farmers are not productive, neither are small businesses or entrepreneurs. What the government has managed to do is give us new slogans and new milestones. Whatever happened to doubling farmers' income by 2022, what happened to the five trillion economy? All that they are doing is shifting the goal post. We must do a lot more. I mean, look at how many income taxpayers there are. A country of 140 crore, as close to 1.5 crore of income tax payers and 80 crore of people need subsidised ration. That's the state of the average Indian. The economy is not working for the average person, it is working for three-four companies who, by sharing proximity to the Prime Minister, are doing well. Manoj CG: In Assam, Congress had back-to-back defeats in 2016 and in 2021. Your party fared poorly in Lok Sabha and faced a resounding defeat in the recent Panchayat election. So how big is the challenge to revive the Congress? See, any election is a challenge, whether you are incumbent or in Opposition. It's a challenge for many reasons. First of all, the electoral system today is not fair. The Election Commission (EC) does not provide a level playing field. In 2023, we saw how biased and partisan the EC was in Assam, in the way it undertook delimitation. It completely obliterated the principles of delimitation where roughly each seat should have the same demography, same size of voters, they created some mega seats and created some very small seats. All of which to suit the voting pattern of the BJP. Now, the EC makes it so hard to even verify voter lists. In my case, as a new state president, we have eight months left. Our past election record has not been optimal, but do I sense that people are ready for a change? Absolutely yes, and it's up to us on how hard and smart we work. On Indo-US diplomacy | The kind of language that President Trump is using is increasingly hostile and combative. So, what has this diplomacy achieved? We are telling the government to grow a spine Rahul Sabharwal: In Assam, your chief minister has linked demolitions to demography. There hasn't been a pushback from the Congress, at least not in assembly debates. There is this sentiment that there is this massive demographic change that needs to be curbed. How do you counter that? And my second question is that while we have seen Mamata Banerjee being very vocal about migrants being targeted, Congress hasn't responded to that. So, two things. What the chief minister and the BJP are doing currently in Assam is politics. Thankfully, the people of Assam and India are wiser than Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. They made many promises to secure the rights of indigenous Assamese, not one has been fulfilled. The NRC (National Register of Citizens) was supposed to be the answer to their politics. That is incomplete. Clause 6 of the Assam Accord was supposed to be the answer to their fear mongering. They created a report which the Centre has not accepted even though Home Minister Amit Shah thumped his hand on the table saying 'Humne woh kiya jo Rajiv Gandhi nahi kar paaye'. Delimitation was the answer. But they keep talking about the same old things. If they really cared about forests, then they would have protected the forests from the various mafias that operate there. The stone mafia, the coal mafia, illegal quarries. People understand that this is a desperate attempt of a chief minister to cling to power because the minute the Congress party comes into power, he will have to face investigations. What people expect from us is that if we come to power, how are we going to work with local industries, with local entrepreneurs? How are we going to build up local artisans? How are we going to preserve and promote the culture of the various ethnic groups and tribal communities? That's what we are focusing on. As for the second question, which is linked to how people are being forced out. Remember, this time in 2021, what did Amit Shah say? He was teaching us chronology, NRC's chronology, CAA chronology. Come election, it's the same BJP rhetoric. Congress is trying hard to live up to people's expectations and continues to reinvent itself. But the BJP is still feeding voters the same diet of fear and hate. Vikas Pathak: The 2024 Lok Sabha elections were a big boost to the Congress. But after that, Haryana was a surprise, then Maharashtra and Delhi. What is the internal learning of the Congress from this? What we're doing right now is continuing to be disciplined to our goal of bringing about social justice. This was started early last year during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. We were talking about social reform through the caste census, through the Constitution being a living document and preserving its soul. We are also looking at the rights of people to vote fairly, to have their names on the voters list. No doubt the losses in Haryana and Maharashtra are a setback. If the time from 2014 to 2024 has taught us anything it is that we have faced these kinds of setbacks before and we know how to overcome them and move forward. In Parliament, we are demanding the updating of voter lists. People in Bihar have been forced to cough up money to get photocopies of birth certificates. The fundamental nature of elections is at stake. We are doing something important and hope that others also join in, this should be a project of the nation. Vikas Pathak: As a party that was the main vehicle of the freedom struggle, the Indian National Congress had leaders like Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi. Now, Narendra Modi, it seems, has successfully become the mainstream embodiment of Indian nationalism. Somehow, Congress is not being able to claw back. Can you reflect on that? Well, I disagree with your conclusion because then Mr Modi would have come back to power in 2024 with a thumping majority. They were projecting 'Char sau paar' and could not reach a majority on their own. I don't see Prime Minister Modi holding the same space, both inside Parliament and outside Parliament, in election rallies, the way he did in his first five years. Post-Covid, Indian thinking has changed. Prime Minister Modi is on a declining trend. I don't see him as the sole factor in Haryana or Maharashtra. I feel the Congress is really speaking to young voters right now. Rahul Gandhi, in his T-shirt and sandal avatar, the kind of content he is producing on social media and the kind of authenticity that he is presenting are far more relatable than the overt hubris of PM Modi. BJP's rhetoric is now stagnant and Congress is more vibrant. Priyanka ji brings another layer of freshness. Her speech in Parliament was so powerful because it spoke to the victims. It just shows how far removed Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Modi are. They didn't even mention the victims. They didn't even have the heart to say sorry that we failed, there was just no heart left. Asad Rehman: The government says there will be no discussion on the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) in Parliament. What is the Opposition's strategy going forward? To be fair to the government, they have not said that reason on the record officially. Asad Rehman: Kiren Rijiju said it (on August 1). Then, that's a clerical reason. The way voters in Bihar have to show up with various papers to get their name registered on the voters list, Mr Rijiju is just citing various historical papers to say that there can't be a discussion. It's absolutely false and he's misleading the public. Have we not discussed electoral bonds in Parliament? Have we not discussed the EC? There are many formats within the Parliament to have a discussion on an important topic without it being held under the ambit of a particular ministry. So if you want, if you have the courage, if you feel that sense of responsibility to the voter, to the right of the average voter, to know what's happening with their democracy, then Parliament allows you that space. On Operation Sindoor | Priyanka ji's speech in Parliament was powerful because it spoke to the victims (of Pahalgam). It shows how far-removed Amit Shah and Modi are, they didn't even say sorry that we failed Damini Nath: Does Assam have a problem of foreigners on the electoral roll? If not the SIR, is there a need to clean the electoral roll? We are all elected on the basis of this electoral roll. Prime Minister Modi is prime minister because of this. But by doing it in this manner, there are a lot of questions, the legitimacy of the exercise and its political timing. There are genuine concerns but laws exist for you to identify a Bangladeshi. You are in charge of the borders. All the laws are there, provided you want to fix the problem. If you don't want to fix the problem, then you will always come up with some new rhetoric. Deeptiman Tiwary: Your CM has been making certain allegations against you and your family. How do you respond to this? Even the home minister said so in the Parliament that I have been to Pakistan several times. Somebody has briefed him wrongly. I have been there once, before Modi ji had gone there to eat biryani, before Modi ji called (Nawaz) Sharif for his oath ceremony. This is at least 10-15 years ago. As I said, people are smarter. They think by targeting my wife, they will have some luck. They will soon realise that my wife is stronger than me. Lalmani Verma: Two days ago when there was a resolution in Parliament to extend the President's rule in Manipur, the Opposition asked for a fresh mandate. Do you think the ground situation is conducive to conducting fresh elections? This issue has several aspects. The first is the home minister's failure. He has been unsuccessful in safeguarding the country. He didn't do it in Uri, in Pulwama, Pahalgam or Manipur. This is his job, maintaining our internal security and he has been consistently unsuccessful. And he has never apologised for that. Second, in the Northeast particularly, through politics, we have been successful in maintaining harmony among different communities. Whether it is the insurgents or underground or communities who had taken up arms, we managed to bring peace through politics. But, this is what saddens me. The politics that was responsible for bringing peace at a crucial time is now dividing a state into two. The tension between two communities is so deep, the wounds are so deep, that it will take at least years to heal. But does that mean we can't have a stable government there? Does that mean there can't be elections there? Not at all. Didn't we have the Lok Sabha elections there? Everything is possible if you have the right political will. From how many states will you snatch away the rights? Ladakh is UT, J&K is UT and here too there isn't a government elected by people. So there are several legitimate questions related to Manipur. Manipur is a big blot on PM Modi's career.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Philippines eyes buying more defence equipment from India
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New Indian Express
6 hours ago
- New Indian Express
It's the world's job to spin around, our job is to be the axis
If you like to choose allegory and atmosphere out of cinematic art to describe the contemporary, a piece of classic Hitchcock horror would seem to be in our midst. There's a bird species that's seeing an increase in its population these days. No, not the pesky pigeon, which has been rendered jobless by email. There's another that's squeaking and gnawing at our window panes. It is the black swan. It's absurd. By definition, it shouldn't be there. Certainly not in such numbers. But being devoid of logic or precedence is no disqualification these days. A handful of years ago, we were stalked by a genocidal virus. Half a season ago, we had war. A small spat in a nuclear family. Both sides complained to Papa. He came and sorted it out. His fondness for young, attractive model democracies is, anyway, all over the news in America. This is one version of the story, not particularly unprecedented if you look at Indo-Pak history. And Donald J Trump speaks only the truth. His social media platform is named for that. Every time you repost what he writes there, it's apparently called a 'retruth'. Those fervently 'retruing' his version in Parliament included Rahul Gandhi, who threw that into the debate along with a gauntlet to the government. If you believe otherwise, he thundered, say it clearly that Trump is no Mahatma Gandhi. But we know that in classical Indian logic, for every assertion, the opposite is equally untrue. Meanwhile, across the border, in Pakistan, it seems America has struck oil! No one from the colonial British to the contemporary Chinese had the foresight to dig beneath those bungalows in Abbottabad. Snake oil, perhaps? The Pakistan army is known to have inexhaustible reserves. Well, in material terms, past US prospectors have talked about shale. Hope our sensitive radars don't get alarmed by the sounds of fracking. Actually, no, this is just Trumpspeak. It means they have dug deep and discovered a new kind of strategic depth. Old-timers may recall that Rafi song which Lalu Yadav once quoted in parliament and got even Manmohan Singh grinning like a Cheshire cat: it's okay if you don't love me, as long as you don't love that—other—guy. Alas, it is happening.
