CATEGORIES

Mahakumbh: Why The Show Must Go On

Mahakumbh Mela 2021

Between Friend And Enemy

Audrey Truschke’s new book is evidence that scholarship trumps controversy

Making Myth Modern

NEW MYTHOLOGY-ORIENTED BOOKS

"We want the Mining Act to be amended"

Two years ago, on March 18, 2019, the 47-year-old PRAMOD SAWANT, an ayurvedic doctor-turned-politician, had the difficult task of stepping into the very big shoes of Manohar Parrikar, who had passed away the previous day. At the time, the BJP was in a minority in the Goa government, Sawant had no administrative experience and no one to guide him, the other two influential leaders—Laxmikant Parsekar and Rajendra Arlekar—having lost the state election two years ago. Goa’s economy was already precarious, after the Supreme Court cancelled 88 mining leases in February 2018, inflicting an annual loss of Rs 1,000 crore since then. The arrival of Covid-19 in March 2020 dealt a further blow as national and international travel restrictions hit its other mainstay—tourism. Goa’s debt has risen from Rs 12,395 crore in March 2017 to Rs 18,444 crore by December 2020. Sawant also took flak for reducing the annual parental income criterion for the popular Laadli Lakshmi scheme (in which a girl child gets Rs 1 lakh when she turns 18) from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 3 lakh in October 2020. With India’s highest per capita income, Goa (counter-intuitively) has a higher number of people above the income threshold than below the revised lower income threshold. There is also the dispute with Karnataka over the Mhadei’s water, as the state’s diversion of the river is said to affect its flow in Goa. Environmentalists are up in arms over a number of government projects they say will benefit the coal-mining business at the cost of the state’s ecology. Yet, Sawant soldiers on as he presides over a BJP government that now has, for the first time in the party’s history in Goa, 28 of the state’s 40 MLAs. In an exclusive interview with KIRAN D. TARE, Sawant outlines how he proposes to overcome the spate of crises. Excerpts:

THE LAST LEG

Mamata plays the lone, injured warrior against the full might of the BJP as West Bengal enters a do-or-die electoral contest

THE ACE HUSTLER

After picking up silver at the Asian Championships in February 2020, the pandemic slowed Bajrang Punia’s training considerably. The freestyle wrestler had to train without a sparring partner and with his Georgian coach, Shako Bendinitis, screaming instructions over the internet. Towards the end of 2020, Punia married wrestler Sangeeta Phogat, after which he travelled to the US for training and an invitational tournament.

MIRED IN THE TAPES

RAJASTHAN PHONE- TAPPING ROW

A Tale of Two Spaniards

A new rivalry between two Spanish coaches is coming to define the Indian Super League

A HANDFUL OF PROBLEMS FOR PINARAYI VIJAYAN

Though polls suggest the Kerala chief minister will win a consecutive term, the LDF also faces challenges

The Cities Of Woe

By 2050, at least 30 Indian cities will face a grave water risk, according to the WWF. The problems range from poor management of water sources, contaminated supplies, leaky distribution networks and vast volumes of untreated wastewater being poured into India’s rivers

HOTSHEET

PICK OF THE MONTH

A TURBULENT TRIANGLE

There is no argument in India that Nepal is a part of the Indian subcontinent. In Nepal, though, the defining issue is of identity vis-à-vis India, with Nepali nationalism basically being anti-Indianism.

The Great Indian Thirst

The country is staring at a grave water crisis unless we get our act together, and fast

The Quad: Hype Vs Reality

The Quad certainly cannot mitigate India's security challenges but with its strategic heft it could out an expansionist China under pressure

ODE TO A SACRED RIVER

Several attempts have been made to clean the Ganga in the past. But never before has the project been undertaken on mission mode, with the prime minister himself overseeing its execution

MAKING EVERY DROP COUNT

Nowhere is this dictum more precious than in India’s arid countryside. Farmers here have now realised that technology, community and shared resources can vastly improve their lot

THE GUJARAT MODEL

The state’s turnaround from acute scarcity to water adequacy in just two decades wasn’t just due to the Narmada canal, it also took visionary leadership

PROJECT CONFIDENCE

On March 16, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted: ‘Advice to BJP in Assam and CPIM in Kerala: Ask not how many ships are in the harbour, but which way the wind is blowing!’ It was an indirect assertion that despite the BJP’s high-profile campaign in the two poll-bound states, the saffron party was unlikely to win. However, Tharoor’s counsel to the saffron party’s Assam unit came as a surprise to many, as the BJPled ruling alliance is perceived to be on a strong wicket in the northeastern state.

ENDING THE DRUDGERY

Even seven decades after Independence, just over a third of India’s 191 million rural households have access to tap water. A nation’s hope now rides on the ambitious Jal Jeevan Mission

THE SOP OPERA CONTINUES

Populism has become the buzzword for the ruling AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and challenger DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) in the campaign for the April 6 assembly election in Tamil Nadu.

PINARAYI TAKES CONTROL

The Kerala assembly election is less than three weeks away and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, 75, is busy tying up loose ends.

WELL VERSED

Mehr Afshan Farooqi’s academic rigour and bilingual ease make her the ideal Ghalib biographer

The Clue is in the Couplet

By casting Ghalib as his crime novel’s sleuth, Raza Mir has hit on something enjoyable

Where Are The Jobs?

Mamata Banerjee’s claims of massive employment creation in her decade-long rule run into some rather dismal statistics

UNLOCKING LIC'S VALUE

THERE IS MUCH TO GAIN FROM BRINGING LIC TO MARKET VIA AN IPO, AND GETTING A HOLD ON THE FISCAL DEFICIT NOT THE LEAST TEMPTING OUTCOME, BUT THERE ARE HURDLES TO CROSS

VYAPAM REDUX?

A series of dubious “coincidences” that have come to light in the results of a recruitment test conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), previously known as Vyapam, has led to the launch of an investigation.

PUNCHING ABOVE THEIR WEIGHT?

The Big Two Dravidian parties are still managing overambitious small allies, pushing for bigger slices of the seats pie

NO THOUGHT FOR FOOD

India’s ambitious attempt to develop large food processing hubs across the country has not yielded the desired results. At the heart of the failure lies a tale of misguided policies, botched implementation and basic infrastructure issues

FEMALE FORCE

THE BIHAR GOVERNMENT’S DECISION TO INCREASE WOMEN’S RESERVATION IN ALL GOVERNMENT JOBS TO 35 PER CENT HAS PROVEN TO BE A GAME-CHANGER FOR THE STATE POLICE FORCE

CHANDY BACK IN THE SADDLE

The former Kerala CM’s entry has revitalised the Congress poll campaign