From the Desk of the Chairman (March 2023)

Late Babasaheb Thackeray and his extended family have always considered Maharashtra as the family’s acquired inheritance (legitimate or otherwise) and have ruled it with or without monarchical salutations. Even when Shiv Sena won the elections for the Legislative Assembly, Babasaheb considered it below his dignity to become the state’s Chief Minister.  He did not want to be a King. He wanted to be King maker. As he himself had claimed once, he was the real power exercising control from behind the throne. Such was his sway over the state’s affairs.  With that kind of absolute control over the state, he was not accountable to anyone, nor any agency dared to touch him.  After his passing, the state appears to have now slipped out of the hands of the family.  There was a time, not too long back, it was inconceivable to imagine the Sana without the Thackeray family at the helm. The recent coup staged by Eknath Shinde, and a large number of his supporters would have been considered a sacrilege by Balasaheb. Sena could have expected opposition from outside; but definitely not from inside.  Those assumptions have all now changed and how.  When Uddhav Thackeray took over from Balasaheb, it was evident to all that the former would be a poor substitute to the fiery and fearless Balasaheb. The son is more moderate and did not have the natural aggressiveness associated with his father and his brand of politics. The Sainiks as the name itself suggests are street fighters and its leader is expected to be ready for battle all the time – arising out of petty quarrels between the foot soldiers or serious border disputes between Maharashtra and other states.  As a Party not entirely built on foundations of great ideologies, the only discerning trait of the partymen was to be ardent foot soldiers of the leadership championing the cause of Marathi manoos. Balasaheb, with his carefully crafted image of being a fearless street fighter fitted the bill perfectly as the chieftain of a large army of dedicated followers.  Eknath Shinde, the current Chief Minister is a dyed-in-the wool Sainik who hails from the Thane region, a Sena bastion. He is a local hero who has risen up the ranks. But he is yet to prove his ability as a great rabble rouser at Party rallies and a shrewd tactician of the Sena.  The rebellion staged by him with a sizeable number of fellow MLAs in tow, and the way he staged the coup speaks volumes of Uddhav’s naivete as a politician.  Uddhav perhaps still not used to walk out of the formidable shadow of his father who was a consummate leader of people who could get the Party’s base all fired up before assigning a reason for doing so. Uddhav is moderate by disposition and appears modest in ambitions. Moreover, he has also been plagued by health issues that has hindered his being able to play more important but active role in the Party.  After all, running a political Party is a twenty-four job, far more difficult than even a corporate assignment.  BJP, Shiv Sena’s partner in crime played its cards carefully and cannily. Maharashtra being the richest state in the country with a sizeable 48 MPs to boot, is as critical, if not more, to the BJP in the run up to the all important 2024 general elections.  The state also boasts of the richest Municipal Corporation in the country with a Budget size upwards of Rs.52,000/- crores per annum. Elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is also around the corner. Be that as it may, the battle lines are now clearly drawn between the two factions on the issue of recognition of which faction is the true Sena. The matter is doing the rounds between the Election Commission and the Supreme Court. As of now, Shiv Sena, the Party now belongs to Eknath Shinde and his associates. What is at stake is much more than a mere name or symbol. For a political party that has an ambition of ruling even a Panchayat in a remote corner of the country, the all-important asset is the treasury that the party controls. Today, one can imagine the mental state of Uddhav Thackeray who has lost everything – the name, the flag, and above all the party.  All that he had considered as his personal inheritance, no less.  He has now two choices before him. Either he can give up and look for a job or invoke his father’s legacy who had braced worse situations before and come out of them with all guns blazing, in true Sena style. The alliance between the BJP and the Sena has also a historical twist in their working relationships since the days of creation of states way back on linguistic basis. The Gujaratis and Maharashtrians settled in Bombay (now Mumbai) share a mutual yet contemptuous admiration for each other. That now plays out in full view with a Gujarati being the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister being a Maharashtrian and both in the belonging to the same alliance!

The unprecedented pandemic that all countries faced, had its sway in India too.  In order to meet the crisis India had announced a slew of measures to mitigate the suffering of vulnerable sections of the society even by doling out free food and affordable shelters. With the economy stagnating on the one hand this had the inevitable consequences.  There was too much money and too little productive capacity being created thereby bringing along higher rates of inflation. The government’s earlier calibrated efforts to contain the inflation to reasonable levels took a beating as priority shifted to subsistence of the population regardless of inflationary pressures that such measures would bring. With the inflation easing consequent to the ebbing of the pandemic the focus has now shifted to a tight monetary policy.  Like many countries India in fact copied the US in this respect.  With the pandemic raging in the US the authorities were more than willing to be liberal in its monetary policies unmindful of what consequences such polices would usher in. This in the end led to unprecedented inflation across the globe not only in the US, particularly after the Ukraine war also causing shortages of food, fertilisers and fuel. Though the war is still raging, there is a discernable easing on the inflation front.  But it still is yet to revert to pre pandemic levels. In the US the Fed had taken upon itself the task of taming the rate of inflation to an ambitious 2%. This has necessitated successive increases in interest rates when.  As of writing this, the rates of inflation are, no doubt, petering out though less than what the Central Banks across the world would like to have. As always, the economists are divided in their opinions on what really causes entrenched inflation impulses. One gets the feeling that dogmatic adherence to interest rate hikes to control inflation needs a relook.  Disruptions to the trade routes, Russia and Ukraine, along with the subsequent sanctions on Russia by different countries had a major impact on global supply chains.  Oil prices surged consequently stoking inflation. In the previous issue in these columns, we saw how the human spirit successfully conquered the manmade adversities. Back home in India the inflation rates are hovering around 7%.  With that, the work has been cut out both for the Finance ministry and the RBI. India faces challenges from external factors and geo-political developments.  This has to be seen in the ever-tightening monetary policy cycles, slowing growth and elevated commodity prices leading to lower growth of our economy. With China slowing down, Pakistan in economic turmoil and Sri Lanka in crisis, our neighborhood is flashing red signs all around.

I am happy that the movie Pathan starring Shah Rukh Khan has set the screens across the country blazing as never before and, in the process, the movie has become the biggest grosser ever. I was happy not because I have seen the movie and found it to be good or great. I have not seen the movie.  Yet I wanted it to succeed.  The Boycott Brigade was at its best trying to stop the film from being screened. They objected to the heroine wearing saffron clothes in one song sequence.  I had trouble looking for the heroine’s clothes in the trailer. The objectionable piece of cloth was so skimpy that one would be forgiven for not noticing them in the first place. The Boycott Brigade had other reasons too for objecting to the screening of the film.  Khan in his previous life had condemned the lynching that had taken place in the country once. I would say that it would be a crime on the part of the society’s influencers to stay silent seeing such incidents. The unstated reason the Boycott Brigade wanted the film to be banned was the hero in the movie is a Muslim.  India is a secular country with an inclusive society. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently told Bharatiya Janata Party workers and leaders to refrain from making unnecessary remarks on irrelevant issues like movies, a message that comes amid controversies around films like Pathan.  There was one mistake in the statement made by the PM – that movies are irrelevant subjects.  This movie amply demonstrates just that. The overwhelming reaction to the movie is a statement in itself rejecting the Boycott Brigade’s stand that such movies deserve to be banned. The unstated agenda of the Brigade to object to Bollywood becoming an inclusive society stands discredited by the mere success of the film and the Brigade’s hate against names alluding to Muslim origins stand rejected. Most importantly what the film has succeeded in conveying is that you can be a Muslim and also be patriotic at the same time. While complimenting the real value of a film like Pathan someone has gone to the extent of saying that the success of the movie should be celebrated.  I second it. Now let me go and watch the movie in peace.

The Supreme Court of India, the country’s apex court besides hearing and pronouncing judgements on important matters, also acts as the final arbiter of justice in the country. It is, therefore, important when it takes steps that facilitates openness of the entire system. Just the other day the Chief Justice of India, Justice Chandrachud announced that the Court is experimenting with automatic transcription of the hearings in the court in order to create a permanent record of its proceedings starting with the proceedings of the Constitution Bench. Transcription is another step by the Supreme Court in making the institution more open to the public. It is in line with a series of steps undertaken in the last few years, such as live streaming of hearings, to ensure more openness and better coverage of the courtroom.  The Court is deploying a computer software to get the transcriptions done which in turn is validated by the lawyers of both sides before uploading. Such process of transcription of proceedings are an international practice. This also improves record keeping of Court proceedings. This step will help all stakeholders like lawyers, researchers and students.  And above all, the litigants themselves.  Lawyers will have to make informed decisions before getting ready for arguments.  The litigants staying at Jalpaiguri, Nagapattinam or Jamnagar will be able to see how their lawyers are arguing their cases for which he or she has paid him. As some lawyer puts it succinctly, the society of lawyers would now stop conceding cases especially those on behalf of the government. Even the Government is thus stood to benefit because of this proposal!

Let me conclude this month’s Editorial with a piece of good news.  The Geological Survey of India (GSI) made an announcement that it has found Lithium deposits in India.  The deposits were found in Jammu and Kashmir. Lithium is a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries.  India is heavily dependent on imports for minerals like Lithium, Nickel and Cobalt.  No wonder this metal is known as “white gold”. Lithium is a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries.  According to GSI it is still early days to predict how the mining of Lithium will pan out especially in a sensitive and mountainous region like Jammu and Kashmir.  According to Jefferies, the financial investment group “Assuming global average reserve-resource ratio, the deposit could be more than sufficient to electrify the entire passenger vehicle and two-wheeler installed base in India. Developing and ramping up a lithium mine can take multiple years, and mining operations could also have adverse impact on the environment due to high water intensity and potential effect on local biodiversity”.  The GSI has estimated that the reserves available for exploitation is as much as 5.9 million tons.  This is as much as 6% of the world’s total reserves.  Currently, the total identified lithium resources in the world stand at 98 mt, as per the US Geological Survey. About half of these resources are in the “Lithium triangle” of South America, which runs through Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. The US, Australia and China each hold 6-12% of global resources. “Further exploration and feasibility studies are required to improve the degree of geological assurance and assess proven or probable mineral reserves, which would provide the commercially viable quantity that can be mined,” Jefferies said.  Come to think of it, India is about to mine political lithium in Jammu and Kashmir.

Thank you.

Venkat R Venkitachalam  

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