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Speakers

Author & Columnist
Journalist & Editor
Interlocutor

Review of the Session by Dipankar Khasnabish

It was an interesting session with Parakala Prabhakar on the occasion of the release of his book “The Crooked Timber of New India”. He was in conversation with Prem Panicker.

I have not read the book, so this summary is based entirely on the conversation. Many important topics were covered, and I will suggest one may spend 100-odd minutes going through the recording of the event. Nevertheless, these for me are the key takeaways (including comments by Prem, which was agreed upon by Parakala):

  1. The performance of the economy during the current central is bad, but given the dominant narrative that has been successfully seeded, issues like the economy, etc. are largely irrelevant in the country today.
  2. It is also to be noted that BJP from its inception has not had any coherent economic policy. For example, at the time of its genesis, it spoke about
  3. The dominant narrative, which is centered around “identity” and “othering” has also helped to subsume other flagrant aberrations/ violations, like no credible data being published by the authorities, inconvenient data being suppressed, or delay in the data collection exercise itself.
  4. The narrative has also helped in weakening the institutions. For example the surrogate digital media campaign by the PM in the recent Karnataka elections even after the 48 hours moratorium started was not even an issue. Ideally, Election Commission should have stepped in.
  5. The narrative has been built on the RSS ideology of how to handle Muslims in India. There were primarily three options – Tiraskar, Puraskar, or Sanskar.

With Puraskar never being on the table, the Sanskar model of including all in India as part of the same great culture was initially tried. However increasingly it has come to the Tiraskar model, and the “othering” of the community has seeped deep into the national psyche.

  1. These changes in the society has not happened overnight, it is a very long project where thousands (if not millions) of Karyakarthas has given their life in propagating the ideas to the nook and corner of the country, as part of the social upliftment. And the manifestation of this hate is more prevalent in the urban areas, among the affluent, and educated.
  2. The challenge is not an individual or a group of individuals, loosely called the cult. It is about an idea, which is now deep-seated. So a simplistic approach of attacking the figures will not be effective at all.
  3. So the solution can’t be a silver bullet. An election win will do precious little unless a large section of the civic society dedicates a substantial portion of their life to taking back this narrative war in the nook and corner of the nation. This will take time, maybe even decades – and we should be ready for this.
  4. We see a gradual change of narrative from secular/ non-secular to Hinduism/ Hindutva. By doing this, we are shifting the battlefield to religion. What we need to focus on is the battle of the fundamental principles of the Constitution, what it enshrines, and how they are being violated.
  5. In summary, it is a battle of ideas, not individuals. Election wins are good but with limited impact. Unless we look at the long term, and take the fight to society. This will require the commitment and dedication of many. And possibly decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parakala_Prabhakar

https://www.amazon.in/Crooked-Timber-New-India-Republic/dp/935447442X/ref

Date & Time

Sunday Sun, 14 May 2023

Location

Bangalore International Centre
7, 4th Main Road, Domlur II Stage
Bangalore, Karnataka 560071 India
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Contact

+91 98865 99675 bic@bangaloreinternationalcentre.org

At a time when a compromised media and the ruling party’s digital army work 24/7 to overwhelm our public discourse with pro-establishment noise, Parakala Prabhakar is an unabashedly critical voice, determined to speak truth to power. In these essays written over almost three years—from 2020 to 2023—he looks closely at facts and data and analyses events and public statements to show why he fears for the future of our democracy, social harmony and economy.

Well known political economist, Parakala Prabhakar will be in conversation with veteran journalist, Prem Panicker, to discuss Parakala’s latest book, The Crooked Timber of New India (Speaking Tiger Books) — a collection of hard-hitting, clear-headed essays on the state of the Indian Republic today, which constitute a sharply critical report card on the performance of the Modi government.

Speakers

Parakala Prabhakar

Author & Columnist

Parakala Prabhakar studied at JNU and the London School of Economics. He was the Communications Adviser to the Government of Andhra Pradesh between 2014 and 2018 and held a Cabinet rank. He is currently the MD of RightFOLIO, a knowledge enterprise based in Hyderabad. He is also a widely-read columnist on current affairs and has a popular YouTube channel, ‘Midweek Matters’, where he discusses issues related to India’s politics, economy and contemporary society.

Prem Panicker

Journalist & Editor

Prem Panicker is a journalist and editor with 33 years in the profession. He is currently Consulting Editor, IndiaSpend.