Dancing With The Stars

IIPM Mumbai Campus

For some, it is a moral and ethical issue; for some it's just about making a quick buck - but the undeniable trend of cine stars turning into dancers for hire presents a strange quandary, discovers Subhash K Jha

The dancing kings and queens of Bollywood are at it. Their great skills at popular entertainment are up for sale at the right price, at any venue and occasion. That some of our hottest A-listers would be dancing at a wedding at a gutka baron’s home in Delhi just reiterates what the forever-quotable Shah Rukh Khan had said when the wave of private dancing had started, “I am a bhand (street entertainer) for rent. Anyone can hire me for a price.”

Bhand or no, stars seem to be up for sale to anyone who can afford them. Years ago Mamta Kulkarni (remember her?) had sent shock waves across Bollywood when she had danced at a cheesy politician’s private party in Jharkhand. In his inimitable way Shatrughan Sinha had quipped, “Bhai, kyun nahin (why not?)? In the olden days we had raj nartakis dancing in the king’s darbaar. We now have our filmi nartakis dancing for politicians. This is just carrying a tradition forward.”

Mamta had raised eyebrows by dancing for a politician. Today when A-listers from Bollywood agree to shake a limb and butt at a gutka king’s residence no one within the film industry is angered into protest.

One topnotch actor who absolutely refuses to get jiggy at private functions did tell me wryly, “Mamta danced for a politician. I hear Katrina is dancing for a gutka king. Which is worse? Depends on which is more harmful to your health. Gutka or politics? I’d never dance (privately) no matter what the price tag. To me it’s humiliating to even consider putting myself up for exhibition at someone’s son mundan ceremony or daughter’s wedding. I don’t mind making a brief appearance to say hello.”

Stars now charge money even to shake hands at weddings and birthdays. A few months ago Bipasha Basu underwent a horrific experience in Delhi where she had agreed to attend a private party for half an hour.

Recalls Bipasha, “I came to know it was actually the birthday party of the hotel owner. I refused to attend because the profile and guest attendance at a birthday party would be something different. I heard there were sozzled people and belly dancers among the invitees. There was loud music blaring across hotel and I could hear it in my room. Early in the day I told them I wouldn’t attend the party. At 1.30 am when I was sleeping, I was woken up with this crazy banging on my door. The voices from outside were demanding me to open the door.”

It was much later that Bipasha got to know that her bouncers had been removed from the hotel premises and that there were TV cameras from channels out there who had been informed that she had taken money to attend the party and then refused to do so.
Defends Bipasha, “I was shivering and crying inside. Even if I had taken money to attend the party, what gave these people the right to bang on my hotel door at that unearthly hour when I’m supposed to be safe and protected? Later I got to know there were hotel staff and also crime reporters from the channels banging on my door. Crime reporters!!! What crime had I committed? My business manager and make-up girl were outside the door going hysterical with terror trying to keep those men from breaking down my door. I could hear leery slurring voices saying, "Ladki hai varna darwaza tod denge." The kind of rudeness and trauma we three girls were subjected to is unbelievable.”

Since then Bipasha has been very careful about the events she attends. But would our other young attractive stars ever learn their lesson?

A very hot and happening actress who is always in and out of private functions had once said to me, “What is there? I just need to be there, do a few steps and get paid well. It makes them all happy. It makes me happy and richer by a few crores. But don’t write about it.”

“If you pay me I’ll dance even at your birthday,” one of today’s top leading ladies had challenged me. A far cry from the time when even a public classical performance was considered infra dig by our entertainment industry’s luminaries. Asia’s Nightingale Lata Mangeshkar fobbed off all the lucrative offers for performing at public concerts until the late 1960s. Her rationale? She is a playback singer, not a stage performer.
Lataji recalls, “Before I did my first live concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1969 my stage appearances were sporadic. I’d join my colleagues from the music industry to sing a few songs at charity concerts and then flee from the scene. The Albert Hall concert was done after innumerable requests. I did it on condition that the venue has to be of historical significance.”

Vyjayanthimala was the first screen queen who actually danced on stage, at the Filmfare awards, and that too on condition that her performance be purely classical and not filmy. In fact, when Asha Parekh and Hema Malini began performing on stage they made sure that they were not required to do any of their filmy dancing. When Vyjayanthimala went on tour of the West Indies in 1970 and the audience asked for her tantalising “Buddha Mil Gaya”, the elegant Tamil actress walked off the stage.

Ditto for Hema Malini. At a dance performance in Trinidad in 1972, Hema haughtily huffed off the stage when audiences clamoured for her filmy dances. I was present at that concert. Laughs the Dream Girl, “You were there? Yes, I’d as a rule walk out if audiences clamoured for glamour. I’m very clear that my stage performances are for my classical dancing. If you want to see me doing my film dances you’ve to see my films. Today the girls are dancing at private functions to make quick money.”

In her characteristically candid style Hema hits the nail on the head. If topnotch stars are willing to dance at private functions then blame the recession. Many of our top heroines are doing much less work on screen than they’d like to. Either the roles are too routine. Or the money too mundane. Why not just attend a function, wave to the crowds, do a jig and go home while the happy host sings “Jiggy jab se tu aaya mere dware….”

Yup, stars at your doorstep for a price. And barring a few like Ajay Devgn, Imran Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, who won’t be caught dead dancing for weddings and funerals, stars seem to not mind this quick-money scheme at all, specially during these time of acute recession when barring a handful of stars no one is making instant money.
But then why would Shah Rukh Khan, Salman and Katrina Kaif who command staggering fees on celluloid and have more assignments on offer than they can handle, choose to gallop into the gutka gallery? Maybe they want to use the money to help victims of mouth cancer?

The ever-pragmatic Mahesh Bhatt jumps to the defence of modern-day raj-nartakis. Says Bhatt, “A star is a commodity with a price tag in the cultural supermarket. I have no issues with them dancing at shaadis.” Subhash Ghai’s no-objection certificate for private star-performances is conditional. “Stars have every right to make as much money as they want from sources other than films as long as the dates allotted to producers, which is the stars’ core commitment, is not hampered just because they get extra money. It’s a crime to cut producers’ dates or to give preference to stage appearances, thereby making producers bear heavy losses. Such actors and actresses have no work ethics.”

Stars are so enamoured of the quick money offered at these private functions that they report sick to producers and sneak off for a bit of fun money on the sly. Curiously, most stars don’t want to talk about their presence at private events. Two years ago Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra had danced live at a diamond merchant’s son wedding in Mumbai hoping no one would notice.

Right! With 2000 guests watching them and Akshay making a grand entrance on horse, the chances of going unnoticed were really high. Ha ha!

Why are stars embarrassed about their wed-and-wild appearances when they are paid upfront for their starry contribution to moneyed marriages? Sighs producer-director Suneel Darshan, “These public appearances by stars are signs of the changing times, rules and values. What was cinema earlier is now the entertainment industry.”
Adds Shailendra Singh whose company Percept arranges many a filmy razzmatazz, “Exploitation of your talent for monetary gains is not incorrect as long as what you do is not morally or socially wrong or doesn’t hurt your brand or image. I personally don’t think dancing at weddings is cool for stars’ images.”

Producer-director Vipul Shah whose favourite star, Akshay Kumar, has no qualms being a private entertainer, jumps at the defence of these public commodities, “Why not? When stars dance for private events the people behind these events feel special and happy. What’s wrong with that? Would anyone talk about it if stars didn’t charge a fee? Let the stars earn and make money as well.” Writer-director Abbas Tyrewala seconds that motion. “They’re performers and make their living performing. If some stars have taken their popularity to the point where they are paid crores for a private function then I say, more power to their tribe.”

Adds Pooja Bedi, “If they can do it for corporate events, fashion shows and product launches, why not weddings which are the most important day of some people’s lives?”
Only the outspoken Sanjay Gupta dares to openly castigate stars for their wedding wows, “I think it totally takes away from the stars’ persona. Can you imagine Mr Bachchan dancing at weddings? There’re so many avenues today for stars to make money. Why dance at weddings?” While the discussion on the moral ethical and financial feasibility of stars performing privately rages on, some of the newer hot-listers have quietly taken a stand against the private jiggle-bandi.

Imran Khan recently said to me, “I’m offered obscene amounts of money to make appearances at private functions. But, no thanks.” Ranbir Kapoor also feels dancing for money at weddings is “not happening.” Sonakshi Sinha would never dance at private functions.

The choice is clear. Obscene money. Or just obscene?

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Band Baaja Barat: Neither slick, nor grand

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM

The Worst Laid Plans

"Band Baaja Barat" (BBB) had the set up to be a well crafted rom-com directed by Maneesh Sharma as a complete family entertainer and would have lived up to those expectations if it had not bungled up on technicalities. Apart from the slight disconnect, abrupt love making scenes and distastefully done smooching sequences, the story BBB dishes out is an interesting one about Shruti Kakkar (Anushka Sharma) aspires to become a wedding planner. Bittoo Sharma (Ranveer Singh) is a laid back lad from Haryana, who passes out of Delhi University and is now desperate to get away from his family business of sugarcane farming. Luckily, he falls for Shruti and soon makes friends with her and convinces her to make him her partner in the big fat wedding planning business called ‘Shaadi Mubarak’. Shruti makes it a point not to mix business with pleasure and plays by her rule book and is ‘just friends’ with Bittoo. But soon that goes for a toss as the proximity between the duo increases and the equation becomes more relaxed once they rejoice after each successful event. How the duo ends up in bed and how things unfold in the second half lacks subtlety and class. Ranveer looks promising being a debutant and Anushka does justice to her role as well. The music by Salim Suleiman, especially the “Ainveyi Ainveyi” number is a peppy one and adds a little dash of flavour of this rather half cooked platter. A slight attention to detail and trivial tweaking would have made BBB delight. But the planning’s gone a bit awry.

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No Problem: Laugh you will, but only sporadically

IIPM Mumbai Campus

Anees Bazmee had clearly announced with “Singh Is Kinng” (SIK) and “Welcome” that the brain is an optional (and possibly irritating) faculty for enjoying his light comic fare on the silver screen. “No Problem” turns out to be a watered down version of “Singh Is Kinng” – the same illogical jumps from one exotic location to another and a similar brand of silliness. But while SIK was slick and “Welcome” had some hilarious performances from Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar, “No Problem” has most of its problems in the performance department. Kangana Ranaut is non existent, Akshaye Khanna is wasted, Sushmita Sen does herself no justice and Sanjay Dutt miserably fails with his comic timing which so wonderfully fell in place in the “Munnabhai” series. The only redeeming factors are Anil Kapoor as the bumbling cop and Paresh Rawal as the banker who has been robbed by Yash (Sanjay Dutt) and Raj (Akshaye Khanna). The first half of the film takes terribly long to build up the story and while there are some nice and funny moments in the second half, the rest of the film has a jaded look to it. Even discounting for the silly performance of Suniel Shetty

as the villain, and the plot holes you will still only get very few laughs out of the movie. The music does nothing to lift the mood. “No Problem” would have been a breezy entertainer if only it were a bit funnier.

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The air fares conspiracy theory?

IIPM Mumbai Campus

The last time domestic airlines were allowed to decide fare levels, they went into a hand-wringing war to death. This time, the government has intervened. But the players aren't amused. steven philip warner answers why.

Every time one scuttles across data-laden scrolls that predict “hope” for airlines in India, the claims are dismissed as wishful thinking. This situation has not changed in a long time now and under such a circumstance, even a good P&L account does little to ease the broad populist anger. Hardly mattered therefore, that the two largest domestic airlines – Jet Airways & Kingfisher – reported improved financials in recent times. Painful memories of Rs 260 billion in losses in the past five years is hard to wipe out. The ever-increasing debt load of the high-fliers is another sore. Rs 582.73 billion and counting it is, of which Jet accounts for Rs 138.97 billion and Kingfisher for Rs 79.22 billion (as on March 2010). There is worry in the air, and the airlines have suddenly realised that they are sinking faster than stone. And their hurried to ensure profits by increasing fares by at least 200% over the past month (since November 15, 2010).

The airlines had put forward a distance-based pricing cap “logic” to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), for its approval. The following were the fare slabs proposed: distance less than 750 km, 750-1,000 km, 1,000-1,400 km and more than 1,400 km. Had the DGCA given its nod, an IndiGo ticket priced at Rs 6,581, purchased on the day of travel, between Delhi and Mumbai, would have sky-rocketed by 244.3% i.e Rs 22,000 (distance of 1,407 km). For JetLite passengers, the spot fares would have risen by 289.1% from the current Rs 7,967 to Rs 31,000. Thus the fares of even the low-cost carriers (LCCs) would have become about 100-200% higher than the ongoing economy fares charged by the Full-Service Carriers (FSCs). Bad news for an environment which saw air traffic grow rapidly only after the advent of the LCCs in 2003. Says John Siddharth, Aerospace Expert, Frost & Sullivan to us, “LCCs have been successful in India due to their low cost strategy. Assuming the LCCs do not have a good competitive pricing in place, it would first reflect in their load factors, which would take a nose dive from the current average of about 85%. The Indian airline sector is on the verge of transforming into a luxury which would result in a negative growth of air passenger traffic.”

Not to forget, the pleading lot this time too, is the same, which went about illogically doling tickets at throw-away prices some years back (which resulted in the state of the domestic sector that is today), forming cartels, requesting relief from the government on all possible fronts and begging for deadline extensions on the billions of rupees due on jet fuel payments. [As on December 3, 2010, Jet & Kingfisher still owed Rs 10.50 billion.] So why is this lot requesting the government to stay home this time? The answer lies in understanding that these preachers of “Free-market Economics” desire to make every inch count. For them, this is the chance to garner windfall profits in unbelievable quick time.

Count the maths. Given the improved conditions of demand in recent months, which have proved a setback for LCCs to an extent, even if we assume that a 200% increase in fares across the board leads to a 50% fall in top line (considering 0% change in op. expenditures & ATF bills for the players), at the H1, FY2010-11 levels of top line, depreciation and interest on loans, Jet would have reported a net profit of a massive Rs 31.73 billion in the remaining two quarters of FY2010-11 – wiping out the nightmares of Rs 11.20 billion in losses garnered since FY2007-08 and lighten its existing debt burden by 91.33% over the next six quarters! Kingfisher, on the other hand, would have reported profits of Rs 52.13 billion during H2, FY2010-11 – enough herb to soothe the Rs 42.04 billion burn accumulated in five years, and wipe clean its total debt by Q2, FY2011-12. Given that the airline has never made profits since it began operations in FY2005-06, it clearly viewed the fare hike as an apt redemption from the societal pressure of not having broken-even yet. It wasn’t to be.

For now though, the government has put its foot down, to restrain the worst of corporate behaviours. It has already set up a tariff analysis unit to monitor route-wise fares of airlines, and the fares across various routes have already fallen by up to 70% since the DGCA made its intentions clear. As for the domestic aviators, they would do themselves good, even if they try and imitate the act of American LCC SouthWest Airlines (SWA) – the only airline that has never made losses in the past three decades! Even in 2009, while “all” airlines in the US reported negative bottom lines, it made $99 million in profits. SWA has made money by no wizadry. It plays with volumes (not price-hikes), offers just what a stripped down LCC aircraft can, and operates its fleet of 550 aircrafts only on profitable routes. Today, Indian carriers which deploy about 70% of their fleet in the budget model (as of October 2010), are close to getting it right. And some like CAPA have even forecasted profits to the tunes of $300 million this year. Says David Bentley, Joint MD, Big Pond Aviation, to us, “There is a demand for competitively priced tickets in the US. The same is the case in India. India is not physically as big as the US but there is the opportunity to follow the same path...”

To stop day-dreaming about fare hikes and do what profitable airlines do around the world, would be quite a change. It would also be some sign that airlines in India have learned a lesson after being stung for years by their own acts of “independent fare-fighting”.

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Indian Judicial System: Judges in the Dock

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM

The concerted campaign for a thorough clean-up of India's ailing judicial system has gathered momentum even as skeletons have kept tumbling out of its cupboard

India’s higher judiciary is in the news for the wrong reasons. Several judges face corruption charges. The collegium system of elevation of judges to the Supreme Court (SC) bench is under a cloud. Many SC verdicts have riled civil society for their "elitist" and "anti-poor" slant. Not long ago, the higher judiciary had dithered on the question of bringing the assets of SC judges, as well as the functioning of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. And now, ex-CJI KG Balakrishnan is in the eye of a storm over former telecom minister A. Raja's attempts to influence a Madras high court judge in a murder case.
The heat and dust that the above developments have whipped up underscore two crucial points. One, the rot runs really deep and, therefore, a clean-up of the nation’s legal system is the need of the hour. And two, the debate on making the superior judiciary – the SC and the high courts – as accountable as the other organs of the Indian republic is now on the national agenda.
The fact that a debate is on is itself a huge step forward for the cause of judicial accountability in a country where the office of a judge has been outside the purview of public discourse for decades. Although the judiciary still isn’t accountable to anyone, and the dreaded provisions of the contempt of court law are still very much in place, the media has lately been openly discussing issues related to misconduct by judges.
The man leading the charge is Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court lawyer and convenor of the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR). He currently faces contempt proceedings for levelling corruption charges against the higher judiciary (in an interview given to a weekly magazine). An unfazed Bhushan has filed an affidavit reiterating the very charges that have led to the contempt notice. He has, of course, received support from leading lights of India's civil society, including Aruna Roy, Harsh Mander, Nikhil Dey and Arvind Kejriwal.
Bhushan's father, Shanti Bhushan, former Union law minister and senior lawyer, has refused to tender an apology to the SC on his or his son's behalf, saying, “I am of the firm belief there is a lot of corruption in the judiciary. The question of apology does not arise. I am prepared to go to jail.”
In a landmark September 2, 2009 ruling in the judges’ assets case, Justice S. Ravindra Bhatt of Delhi high court had said: “All power – judicial power being no exception – is held accountable in a modern Constitution. Holders of power too are expected to live by the standards they set, interpret, or enforce, at least to the extent their office demands.”
Hailing the judgment, former CJI J.S. Verma, had asserted: “These principles are unexceptionable. It would be a pity if the judgement is not accepted in good grace and it is challenged in appeal by the Supreme Court, ultimately before itself!”
SC did appeal against the Justice Bhatt judgment. Earlier this year Delhi high court not only upheld its earlier ruling but also asserted the provision of the RTI Act applied to the office of the CJI as well.
Life has never been a smooth arc for Prashant Bhushan. He went to IIT Madras only to leave after a single semester. He then headed to Princeton University to study economics and philosophy. Once again, he left the course midway. Destiny had other ideas for him. He finally studied law in Allahabad University.
Bhushan now fights corruption among judges. He states that there is only one way left for him in this crusade: utilising the power of public pressure to make the judiciary accountable and corruption-free. His approach is paying dividends. CJAR, which is a group of civil society activists, has taken up cudgels against “rampant corruption” in the judiciary.
The advocate's biggest achievement to date has been the case relating to retired CJI YK Sabharwal, which hogged the limelight a few years ago. Back then, casting aspersions on judges was unthinkable. But times have changed and pressure is mounting from all quarters on SC and high court judges to become more transparent in their dealings.
Understandably, the judges aren't taking things lying down. They assert that any external monitoring of judges would undermine the independence and objectivity of the judiciary. This stand is in response to a suggestion from Prashant Bhushan supporting the setting up of a National Complaints Commission.
However, not everybody in the legal fraternity is in agreement with Bhushan's idea. Ravi Kiran Jain, senior advocate in Allahabad, tells TSI: “I feel there is a bigger rot in the bar council. A large number of practising advocates in the lower courts are no more than quacks.” The fact that judges have a conflict of interests is an open secret. Relatives of judges have been practising advocates in lower courts, high courts and even in the SC. “It is a known fact that AM Ahmadi’s daughter practised in the apex court when he was the CJI,” says Naresh Chandra Rajvanshi, president, Allahabad High Court Bar Association and ex-chairman of the Bar Council.
The SC’s current official line is that exposing judges to all-out scrutiny under the RTI Act would undermine judicial independence. But those in favour of accountability argue that ‘independence’ means independence from the executive, and not freedom to indulge in corrupt practices and other forms of misconduct.
There is an urgent need to clean up the judiciary and this is a matter of highest priority. Rajvanshi suggests a simple solution. “The initial appointment of judges should be outside their home states. This will minimise allegations being levelled on judges. About 15-16 years ago 21 judges of Allahabad high court had been transferred and after that instances of favouritism had significantly reduced.”
Some legal experts feel direct attacks on judges would undermine the image of the judiciary. However, Justice DV Shylendra Kumar runs a blog that has raised the hackles of many judicial circles. In a post on the blog www. nyayabharat.blogspot.com about a year ago, he wrote: “The judicial system in our country has been shrouded in mystery, and secrecy as is perhaps the position elsewhere in the world and judges are expected to maintain distance, aloofness and should be inaccessible to the common people…”
After the enactment of the RTI Act in 2005, the tussle between civil society and the judiciary intensified. The row over judges' assets started when Subhash Chandra Agrawal filed an RTI plea seeking information about what the judges owned. This triggered a tussle between CIC and SC. A retired district court judge told TSI, “Judges should not expect they will be sitting on piles of information forever.”
The collegium system of appointment of judges, too, has been hotly debated in the media and on other public platforms in recent years. Many legal experts have repeatedly pointed out that the system of appointment of judges is seriously flawed. There were many highly capable judges likes of RS Sodhi and former CJI of Delhi High Court AP Shah in the past who never made it to the Supreme Court.

‘Corrupt judges are afraid of me’
Prashant Bhushan, SC Advocate

Should their be an independent agency to judge the judges or to monitor the judges?

Yes, there should be. We have been advocating the constitution of National Complaints Commission.

What can be the composition of such a body?

Eminent people from all walks of life can be part of such a body. I am not in favour of putting retired judges to head such a body or be a part of it because they might have vested interests.

Have you ever felt some kind of ill-feeling among judges when you argue in the court?

No. My practice has not been affected at all. See, there are three types of judges. First is corrupt judge and since they are corrupt they are afraid of me. He knows very well that I cannot be bribed or browbeaten. The second type are rigorously honest and they support me as they feel I am cleansing the mess in the judicial system. The third kind of judges is passively honest. They are honest but they feel whatever I am doing will tarnish the image of the judiciary. Their reaction, however, has been very limited and it has not affected my professional practice.

Now, there is lot of pressure on judges to become more transparent. What is the reaction among them?

There is a problem of mindset change among the judges who by and large feel that there should not be any external force on them and the only way to change is through self-regulation. In my view this is not correct as self-regulation has failed miserably which is clear from examples of Bar Council and Medical Council. The in-house committee of judges, too, has not been very effective barring few cases such as of Soumitra Sen and Nirmal Yadav in Chandigarh.

‘Appointments are arbitrary’
R S Sodhi, Retired Delhi High Court Justice

Despite proven capability and competence you did not make it to Supreme Court. What could be the reason?

(Laughs)….There were more competent judges than me in the queue.

Don't you feel there is something wrong with the system of appointment of judges?

Yes, there is tremendous arbitrariness in the way judges are appointed in the Supreme Court. It does exist.

Any regrets for not having made it to the Supreme Court?

No regrets… At least I made it to the Delhi high court. I was upright and always tried to take the side of truth be it in the Jessica Lal case or any other case. Nine-five per cent of my judgments were oral and spontaneous.

Your comment on the Supreme Court criticism of Allahabad high court…
(Cuts in…) Justice Katju was Chief Justice of Allahabad high court and he knew this fact for a long time. He could have taken steps to rectify the system.

Are you aware of Prashant Bhushan's campaign against corruption in the judiciary?
Yes. He is doing a commendable job but it will be premature to say how effective the campaign will be. The basic idea is whatever system you create, if people at the helm of affairs do not understand their responsibility, it will not work be it judicial commission or collegium or anything else.


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Privately owned sanctuaries in Karnataka have emerged as an alternative model for forest conservation in the Western Ghats

IIPM Mumbai Campus

They are men on a remarkable mission. What they do for a living individually is none too unusual. G.N. Ashokavardhana owns a small book shop and Krishnamohan Prabhu is a surgeon. But together, they represent a whole new movement. The duo takes care of a private forest reserve in the Western Ghats. Importantly, they neither receive nor expect any help from the government.

Having jointly bought 15 acres of land in the Bisle reserve forest, Ashokavardhana, owner of Athree Book Centre in Mangalore, and Dr Prabhu have set out to preserve the biodiversity of the area. Bisle, located near Kukke Subrahmanya, a small hamlet in the Western Ghats, has one of India's densest rain forests. The ecology here is extremely fragile and under constant threat from city dwellers who frequent the many resorts that dot the reserve forest today.

It isn't as if Ashokavardhana and Dr Prabhu are sitting on pots of money. What drives them is grit and commitment to the cause of environmental conservation. They decided to pool their resources together as neither could have taken the onus of running a private sanctuary single-handedly. “We learned about a scenic stretch near Bisle reserve forest, which was being eyed by a party that wanted to set up a resort. We decided that something needed to be done to protect the sanctity of the forest. Hence this joint venture,” says Dr Prabhu.

The duo has left the land exactly the way it was when they bought it. “We may now be legal owners of this glorious patch, but we would like it to remain a natural forest,” he says. So no barricades have been put up around the land nor has the stretch been altered in any other manner.

Says Ashokavardhana: “Preserving this sacred forest in the face of indiscriminate commercial activity is the need of the hour. Nature lovers can visit the forest on foot and enjoy the wilderness on their own. Who needs a resort in the middle of the forest to attract travellers? If you want to drink and dance, you can opt for any commercial outlet in the city. Leave the forest alone.”
While Ashokavardhana owns nine acres of private forest land in Bisle Ghat, Dr Prabhu has the remaining six acres.

They aren't the only ones in this domain. Another private reserve forest, the much bigger SAI Sanctuary, is located in the heart of the watershed area for the entire peninsula and UN-designated biodiversity hotspot.

From the initial purchase of just 55 acres of private forested land in 1991, the sanctuary has grown to more than 300 acres. Its positive influence is being seen and felt in the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries that border Brahmagiri, Nagarhole and Bandipur.

Uttar Pradesh-based Anil Kumar Malhotra, founder-president of SAI Sanctuary Trust (SST) bought 55 acres of private land when he decided to move to Coorg 18 years ago. But he did not alter the land for plantation or any other purpose. Instead, he just enriched it further by adding acreage as time went by. He wanted this land to be just the way nature meant it to be. As a result, the 300 acres of private land is richer in terms biodiversity than the surrounding government sanctuaries like Nagarhole and Bandipur.
Many naturalists and scientists have over the years done research within its grounds. Today the sanctuary has a rich variety of flora, including hundreds of different indigenous trees and plants – many with medicinal value – as well as numerous rare and threatened species of animals. The sanctuary is home to river otters, civet cats, giant Malabar squirrels, lesser loris, various types of deer, monkeys, and snakes (including the Indian King Cobra), dhole (Indian wild dog), foxes, jackals, leopards, the Asian elephant, and the Royal Bengal Tiger. The forest canopy is frequented by over 300 different kinds of birds, including the one that is on SST’s logo – the paradise flycatcher. Many of these species of both flora and fauna are found nowhere else on the planet.

SST is a registered nonprofit organisation originally formed to run the sanctuary. From different countries and cultures and from various walks of life, the trustees and advisors of SST include businessmen and educators, writers and speakers, veterinarians and naturalists, scientists and environmentalists. Protection of forests and their wildlife is the link that has drawn these trustees together. “We have kept our land as pure as it was earlier. Many scientists and like-minded people who come here for research and other reasons take great pleasure in discovering the rare flora and fauna, ” says Kashi, manager of Sai Sanctuary.

Government-owned forest land has been overrun in recent years by commercial establishments out to profit from the wanderlust of tourists. As part of this kind of tourism promotion, sprawling resorts and guest houses have come up in the forests, endangering their flora and fauna. Ashokavardhana alludes to the popular Bhagavathi Nature Camp, a resort run by the forest department near Kudremukh town. “It started as a small camp but as its fame grew the place has turned into a source of great disturbance in the once-peaceful forest,” he says.

Men like Ashokavardhana and Dr Prabhu are determined to make a difference. But how do they manage to maintain their little private sanctuary in the absence of monetary gains? The answer is simple. They say: “Preserving forests and wildlife requires no cost. Just leave the natural forests as they are and do nothing. Why do we need money?”

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BJP's New Hue

IIPM Mumbai Campus

With an eye on resurrecting its political fortunes at the Centre, the saffron brigade has donned a liberal cloak and begun to train its focus on Muslims and Dalits

In an incident that can only be termed intriguing, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, on November 15 this year, visited Ahmedabad's Muslim-dominated Juhapura locality, which is often referred to as “mini Pakistan” by the locals. The occasion was a Sufi music and qawwali programme at Sarkhez ka Roza, a Mughal era tomb, organised by the Gujarat government under a special drive to preserve and maintain heritage buildings. More interestingly, the tomb was especially chosen for the programme at Modi's behest. It was for the first time after the 2002 Gujarat riots that Modi had come calling here. On this visit, he spent a considerable time with Muslims of the locality.

December 6 is a special day for the BJP. Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu organisations celebrate it as shaurya diwas throughout the country, and BJP leaders make their presence felt in large numbers in these programmes. It is the day of Ambedkar’s death anniversary as well. This time around, the BJP top brass forgot Ram Lalla and chose to put the temple issue on the backburner. It instead focussed on Ambedkar. While Lal Krishna Advani bowed his head before Ambedkar’s statue in Parliament, prominent BJP Dalit leader Satya Prakash Jatiya demanded that Ambedkar’s parinirvana site, the place where he died in New Delhi, should be accorded the same status as Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial. The party's other Dalit MPs in their letters to the Prime Minister echoed Jatiya's demand.

On December 12, organisations associated with VHP organised a yagna and a meeting of sadhus for the construction of Ram temple in Delhi. It was incumbent upon the local BJP leaders to make the programme a success. BJP's national organising secretary Ramlal convened several meetings of the cadre. However, on the day of the programme no BJP leader of repute was seen on the dais. Even the handful who turned up preferred to sit off the stage. Usually, such programmes see a huge gathering of big and small BJP leaders.

These incidents are pointers to the fact that Nitin Gadkari’s BJP is changing. It has been a year since Gadkari took over the reins as party president and the outcome of his policies is clearly visible. With an eye on the future political gains, the party is keen to shed its staunch Hindutva image and look more liberal. Gadkari aims to increase the party’s vote bank by 10 per cent by 2014 to wrest power away from the Congress.
The change in the party’s policies and programmes is a result of this thinking. Gadkari is eyeing the Muslim and Dalit vote bank which has traditionally been with the Congress and of late with other secular parties. Hence, instead of the temple, the party wants to make development and good governance its key issues. Gadkari has also coined two new slogans that embody the party’s new focus, “politics for development” and “antodaya” (meaning the development of the marginalised). For the latter he has established a special Antodaya cell in the party. For the politics of development, he has instructed all BJP workers to play a facilitatory role to government departments running development schemes.

Actually, it is now more of a compulsion for the BJP to come out of its hardline image, discard old issues and talk of development. At a time when Congress leaders, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, are making development the focus of all party policies, it is but natural for the BJP to follow suit. As political analyst Dr Subhrokamal Dutta puts it, “In a democracy, the politics of the opposition is determined by the agenda of the ruling party. If the ruling party is talking of development, the opposition should ideally do the same.”

But the question is: is RSS happy with the recent development of BJP distancing itself from the temple issue? According to sources close to Gadkari, this change in politics enjoys the support of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Even otherwise, Gadkari, who became the party chief at the behest of RSS, consults the organisation in every matter of importance.

As soon as he became the party chief, Gadkari initiated a process of dialogue with Muslims. In almost all his speeches he would cite the example of BJP ruled states, especially Gujarat, where development-oriented policies of the government had helped Muslims progress through an increase in their income and employment. By putting aside the temple issue and by stressing development programmes initiated for the benefit of Muslims and Dalits, the party is sending out the message that it is no longer a party unfriendly towards them. Mohd Idris Khan, a Muslim BJP leader in Ghaziabad, UP, and former district president of the party’s minority front, seconds this observation. “Although there have been many schemes for the development of the minorities right from the time of Kalyan Singh to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but Muslims were largely apprehensive of the party's motives. By pushing aside the temple issue, the party is ensuring that more Muslims come into its fold,” says Khan. The grant of aid to madrasas in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat is one of the steps that have been taken to woo the Muslims.
Senior BJP leader and former cabinet minister Shahnawaz Hussain says, “Through our work we are trying to remove the misconceptions that had been put into the minds of Muslims about the BJP. As a result, in the recent Bihar elections we have won a majority of Muslim-dominated seats. We have the support of almost 21 per cent Muslims there. In the panchayat and municipal council elections of Gujarat, our candidates have won on more than 100 Muslim dominated seats.”

To attract Dalits to the party, the BJP has started celebrating the birthdays and death anniversaries of several Dalit icons in a grand manner. It has also decided to raise issues pertaining to Dalits. This year, for the first time the party organised grand programmes on Valmiki Jayanti and on Ambedkar Diwas.

The BJP has understood that in today's coalition politics, Ambedkar is more relevant than Ram. In the BJP-ruled states special programmes are being formulated for the uplift of the Dalits but the focus is on educating them. The party believes that once educated, the Dalits will be more aware and parties like the BSP will not be able to exploit them.

National president of the BJP SC front Dushyant Kumar Gautam says, “Special funds are being allocated for the education of Dalits in BJP-ruled states. Our governments are giving scholarships on a large scale to Dalit children to encourage them to go abroad for higher studies.” It shows the aprty's changed perception of the “swadeshi”. The party’s earlier stance was to oppose the videshi (foreign).

Gadkari sees the party’s future in Ambedkar and Antodaya and not in Ram Lalla. Though a faction of the party is extremely unhappy with the policy alteration, Gadkari does not seem to care as long as he enjoys the Sangh's support.

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Save the Girl Child: Anganwadis may monitor against families and doctors misusing sonography machines

IIPM Mumbai Campus

The shameful drop in girl child ratio (to 880 per 1,000 males) has propelled the government to initiate new measures to tackle this social menace in the state. In a revolutionary move, the state government plans to involve more than 4,000 anganwadi workers across Maharashtra to play the role of whistleblowers against families and doctors misusing sonography machines to identify and abort female foetuses.

The misuse of sonography machines in the backward regions of Nandurbar, Chandrapur, Akola, Gondia and Buldhana, posed a new challenge to the state administration. In order to meet this challenge, Minister of women and child welfare, Varsha Gaikwad, proposed the movement to engage anganwadi workers as monitoring agents. “An unassuming, low-profile anganwadi worker is the best bet. Through their close conventional networking, they can elicit all the details about developments in the family. They can not only monitor but also alert the administration about the misuse of the sonography," says Gaikwad.

In the past, former health minister Vimal Mundada took concrete steps to check rampant misuse of sonography machines. However, medical practitioners often took advantage of loopholes in the legal system to manipulate it to their advantage.

Not one to give up the fight against the skewed sex ratio, Gaikwad has travelled more than 2,000 km criss-crossing parts of Marathwada, Vidarbha, western Maharashtra and Thane regions. She laments, “It is a phenomenon that has broken economic and social barriers.

We all know that being a girl is super special. Sadly, not everyone seems to think so. That's why iDiva is celebrating September as "Save the Girl Child" month. Join us as we raise awareness about this cause, highlight initiatives that promote girl children and explore what we can do to make a difference. There's also loads of fun in store 'coz we're celebrating just how special we girls really are!

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