Dinesh Kamath’s column ‘New movies released in Navi Mumbai’ (Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi and Thackeray) that was published in Newsband

New movies released in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi

Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi is a 2019 Indian biographical period drama film based on the life of the Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi. It is directed by Krish and Kangana Ranaut and produced by Zee Studios in association with Kamal Jain and Nishant Pitti. The film stars Kangana Ranaut in title role.

The film is based on the life of Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi and her war against the British East India Company, during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi is the real life story of the warrior queen. She was the first woman in history to fight against the British and started the first war for Independence. The 22-year-old queen refused to cede Jhansi to the British. Dressed as a man, she fought a fierce battle and was killed in combat but her inspiring life story and fight against the British is an inspiring tale of bravery, valor and women's strength that has inspired generations after her and will inspire generations to come.

The film has Kangana Ranaut as Rani Laxmibai (Manikarnika aka Manu), Atul Kulkarni as Tatya Tope, Jisshu Sengupta as Gangadhar Rao, Richard Keep as General Hugh Rose, Suresh Oberoi as Bajirao II, Danny Denzongpa as Ghulam Ghaus Khan, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi as Puran Singh, Ankita Lokhande as Jhalkaribai, Yash Tonk as Rao Tula Ram, R. Bhakti Klein as Lord Canning, Mishti as Kashibai, Unnati Davara as Mundar, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Sadashiv, Rajiv Kachroo as Gul Mohamad, Nihar Pandya as Pran Sukh Yadav, Taher Shabbir as Sangram Singh, Naveen Manar as TBA, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as TBA, Manish Wadhwa as Moropant and Nalneesh Neel as Teer Singh.

The film's soundtrack is composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and lyrics written by Prasoon Joshi. Background Score by Sanchit Balhara and Aknit Balhara, Orchestration and studio contracted by KAY-S. Philharmonic Orchestra undered by Sanchit and Ankit Balhara.

The film has songs like "Bharat"  sung by Shankar Mahadevan, "Vijayi Bhava" by Shankar Mahadevan, "Bolo Kab Pratikar Karoge" by Sukhwinder Singh, "Rajaji" by Pratibha Singh Baghel, Ravi Mishra, "Shiv Tandav"       by Shankar Mahadevan, "Tak Taki"     by Pratibha Singh Baghel, "Dankila" by Prajakta Shukre, Shrinidhi Ghatate, Siddharth Mahadevan, Arunaja and "Bharat" by (ft Prasoon Joshi) Shankar Mahadevan, Prasoon Joshi.

Thackeray

Thackeray is a bilingual biographical film written and directed by Abhijit Panse, made simultaneously in Marathi and Hindi. Following the life of Bal Thackeray, the founder of the Indian political party Shiv Sena, the film stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the eponymous person and Amrita Rao as his wife.

From a firebrand journalist to an influential political leader who played a major role in shaping the Marathi identity, Balasaheb Thackeray's journey is also the story of birth and evolution of Shiv Sena. The film chronicles the life and times of the charismatic leader whose legacy continues to live on through his words and deeds

The film has Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Balasaheb Thackeray, Amrita Rao as Meena Tai Thackeray, Sudhir Mishra as Mastan, Abdul Quadir Amin as Jaidev Thackeray, Laxman Singh Rajput, Anushka Jadhav, Niranjan Javir, Dr Sachin A. Jayavant as Uddhav Thackeray, Vishal Sudarshanwar as Raj Thackeray, Radha Sagar, Satish Alekar and Anand Vikas Potdukhe as Jambuwantrao Dhote.

Rohan-Rohan and Sandeep Shirodkar composed songs for the film while the background score is composed by Amar Mohile. The lyrics written by Dr Sunil Jogi, Manoj Yadav and Manndar Cholkar. The film has songs like "Saheb Tu Sarkar Tu", "Aaple Saheb Thackeray", "Aaya Re Thackeray" and "Thackeray Theme" (Music by Sandeep Shirodkar).

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Challenge for policymakers' that was published in Newsband

Challenge for policymakers

The multi-month low retail and wholesale inflation poses challenge for policymakers and the central bank. Monetary policymaking is a challenge. Governor Das alluded to this in a recent speech where he pointed to the divergences and volatility in different sub-groups as a major challenge in inflation assessment and projection.

Prominent policymakers, including principal economic adviser Sanjeev Sanyal, have called for the RBI to take a re-look at the interest rate structure. It will be interesting to watch how the RBI reacts to these calls.

The Interesting challenges for the Inflationary pressures has been mounting up ever whenever the RBI announced its policy on its rate cut.

Another thing is India must define a minimum living wage level to measure economy. While "pure" Economists and Planners go strictly theoretically on the basis of "inflation" as the measure for Economy trend, we are not seeing a different reality that is better understood (especially in a relatively poor country like India), where Real Wages at BoP would show us a more accurate picture of how common people feel. There is also a need to define Minimum Decent Living Wage (MDLW) of an adult in India, and we need to monitor how many do earn at least near about that (or how many do not earn that). This reader has estimated that MDLW in India is Rs. 95,000, and there are over 600 million adults (age above 19) who do not earn even a fraction of this value. Were we to look at our Economy's ability to service the MDLW values, a total Value Addition of over Rs.600 trillion are needed. Alas! Our present GDP is about Rs.190 Tr. What is the point in all these window dressing by RBI through "inflation conundrum"?

One need not look far to learn the RBI's likely decision what with the government nudging it to lower the interest rate. The savings habit is taking a blow by the failure of the banking system to pay interest to keep their savings with the same purchasing power at least, in the future. Further, the government propping up falling entities like IDBI on the one hand and IL&FS on the other hand with different means at its hand leads one to live the present without saving for the future or fall a prey to fly by night operators.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Can EVM ensure free and fair election?' that was published in Newsband

Can EVM ensure free and fair election?

The recent Assembly elections were not devoid of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunctions. ‘Malfunction’ suggests a technical defect. ‘Tampering’ is manipulation aimed at fraud. There were several reports of misbehaving EVMs. A discrepancy of even one vote between votes polled and votes counted is unacceptable.

Transparency, verifiability, and secrecy are the three pillars of a free and fair election. Any polling method must pass these three tests to claim legitimacy. Paper ballots obviously do. The voting happens in secret, and the counting happens in front of her representative’s eyes.

EVMs, however, fail on all three, as established by a definitive judgment of the German constitutional court in 2009. The court’s ruling forced the country to scrap EVMs and return to paper ballot. Other technologically advanced nations such as the Netherlands and Ireland have also abandoned EVMs.

Hence the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was introduced. But VVPATs solve only one-half of the EVMs’ transparency/verifiability problem: the voting part. The third criterion is secrecy. Here too, EVMs disappoint. So, on all three counts — transparency, verifiability and secrecy — EVMs are flawed. VVPATs are not the answer either, given the sheer magnitude of the logistical challenges. The recent track record of EVMs indicates that the number of malfunctions in a national election will be high.

Despite these issues, EVMs continue to enjoy the confidence of the EC, which insists that Indian EVMs, unlike the Western ones, are tamper-proof. It is true that the results come quicker and the process is cheaper with EVMs as compared to paper ballot, but what about the integrity of the election?

The argument made in favour of the EVM is that it eliminates malpractices such as booth-capturing and ballot-box stuffing. But is that true in the age of the smartphone? It is nearly impossible to detect EVM-tampering.

The EC is obliged to provide the people of India a polling process capable of refuting unjustified suspicion. EVMs indeed have to pass the test of credibility.

The problems do exist with the paper boxes as well. Issues of hijacking entire boxes as well as other types of irregularities have been alleged in the past and efforts to corrupt the process will also happen in future.

We should look to adopting technology where possible to strengthen the process as it provides a more effective means to do so. The manual process is easier to manage and more difficult to corrupt in a place like Germany but perhaps not India.

Let us examine how we can bring credibility to the technology-led process by addressing the requirements of transparency, verifiability and secrecy.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Doubt over the Rafale deal' that was published in Newsband

Doubt over the Rafale deal

The questions about the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets persists despite a clean chit of sorts from the Supreme Court. In comparison to the bid under the UPA there was an overall escalation in the price of each jet in the 2016 deal struck by the Modi government. The bare-bones aircraft was spread over 36 jets as opposed to the original 126.

Why did the government drop, or fail to secure, the follow-on provision, which would have given India the option to purchase more Rafales, and reduce the per-aircraft price? The information that could impact the aircraft’s operational capability or jeopardise national security shouldn’t be shared, but the government has been less than willing to come forward to address the issue of pricing. Instead it has been taking cover under the secrecy clause. Naturally, the general presumption will be that it has something to hide.

The government on its part has already sent the Pricing details Brochure to the CAG, which upon full auditing will send it to the Public accounts Committee of the Parliament, so the suggestion that a JPC or Private Briefing by the government to bury the hatchet is infructuous because:- 1. First priority of any govt should be to keep some security matters undisclosed in the interest of the Nation. 2. As far as opposition is concerned. They are known best to play blame game politics and corruption even at the cost of our Nation. 3. Starting with 36 we will surely be moving towards many 126, so the question arising out of the number of aircrafts should be put to rest. 4. At the time of general elections the opposition is in tight corner to use any opportunity to defame the present government. 5. Majority means majority, as quoted 4:3 above, so there is no need to question it. 6. At first the opposition targeted for corruption, then pricing, and now the route of deal.

It seems that the Modi government prudently settled at at the optimum number of 36 jets by striking a balanced between financial constraints and our security needs.

Rafale aircrafts deal was unduly delayed. The seeds of corruption are to be found in such delay. The aircrafts deal could not be finalized by UPA government. How a probe by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) can find out reasons for delay or how secrecy clause is misused by the govt. in power? Congress and other opposition parties are least concerned about finding out the truth or about ending corruption in such deals. Congress and other parties should demonstrate political will to end corruption in all defence deals. Reality is that making allegations of corruption against the NDA government and PM Narendra Modi is a just a poll gimmick. These parties want to be voted to power.

In the deal by UPA there was no fully-equipped-combat-aircraft to compare its price with the present 36 fully-equipped-combat-aircrafts. The matter is very simple. Calculate the total cost of all the bare-bone-aircrafts negotiated by UPA along with escalations and calculate the total cost of the present ones with all their adds-on if universally known as claimed.

Doubts and questions on price deal are genuine and a clear white report of the deal from UPA period till the NDA regime must appearbefore the JPC with facts and figures to clear the air.

The thing is every defence deal involves corruption, only the degree and the recipients change. The bogey of national security silences those who find something is fishy about a deal. They are called traitors. But don’t forget that peace with neighbours is the cheapest and everlasting defence. Defence budget eats into the social sector. Poverty alleviation remains a distant dream.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'National Security comes first' that was published in Newsband

National Security comes first

The controversy over Rafale deal should be put to rest in the interest of national security, said the Ministry of Defence (MoD). It further said that the steep price escalation in the deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets is “factually inaccurate”.

The apex court had not found “anything adverse in the deal” and had refused to order an investigation. The Comptroller and Auditor General [CAG] has been given access to all the files related to the Rafale deal. It is best to await the report of an authoritative agency like the CAG. The Defence Minister has eloquently spoken on it in Parliament and the CAG has access to all files. Yet some are using this for their own political ends.

After this clarification, if the Congress is still maliciously raising the issue, it is only for a political purpose, for which they are also sidelining national security. Chidambaram is taking advantage of the government's strict adherence to national security concerns. In this case the need to keep the details of sensitive weaponry etc associated with the combat aircraft ordered, top secret lest the enemy will take advantage eventually rendering the huge investment on 36 invincible war machines a colossal waste. Let us not play ourselves into the hands of our enemies

The more pertinent and relevant question to ask: over the course of 70 plus years of political freedom, why did not our political establishment, build up indigenous capability to manufacture aircraft in general and fighter aircraft in particular? Thousands of fighter aircrafts have been imported and multiple technology transfer agreements struck: yet HAL is unable to manufacture fighter aircraft on its own. Why is this? What has been the role of the political establishment, the bureaucracy, the media and the judiciary in this? If only HAL or any other PSU was alllowed to develop this capability, there would be no need for a discussion on the Rafale deal now.

This is just an attempt to tarnish Modi’s image. Despite feverish attempts the opposition members are unable to pinpoint a scam. If Congress is politicising issue of Rafale, then, what were they doing all these years? Was that all in national interest? They played Hindu vs Muslim card, dalit vs pandit, Lynching vs Cow, Demonetisation vs counterfeit, Assam vs Migrants, Jobs vs jumla, Farmers vs GST, Verma vs Asthana, Patel statue vs Chinese, and so on. All they do is politicise issue etc. All they have been doing is create controversies all these years. IAS officers should be made PMs, CMs and governers of our country. Otherwise we will be at the mercy of mediocres.

All these allegations by Congress is a lame attempt to implicate Modi and Parrikar on false corruption charges. Hope the power crazy dynasty and the head line grabbing media start thinking in the national interest for once during their lifetime.

The opposition wants to paint the govt as corrupt and inept since there are multiple cases against many opposition leaders who were in power that would be discussed in the election speeches of NDA. So an illusory case has been carved out for propaganda to bamboozle the people. But interestingly the people are very shrewd to see through all the power games in play. The media is least neutral and talk for one or the other party according to its choice. Still we have to wait and see people’s reply in the ballot box. Till then let us enjoy the wise guys in full steam to get to the national coffers.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Big increase in Rafale's price' that was published in Newsband

Big increase in Rafale's price

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision, announced out of the blue in Paris on April 10, 2015, to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France instead of the 126 asked for by the Indian Air Force for six squadrons pushed the price of each fully fitted, combat-ready aircraft up by 41.42%.

Top-level corruption and criminal misconduct have been alleged, notably by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, and three well-known public interest petitioners, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, and Prashant Bhushan, who along with two others took their case to the Supreme Court of India but could not succeed.

Comparisons have been drawn with the Bofors scandal, by protagonists as well as antagonists, towards different ends, but unlike Bofors, where journalistic investigation was able to uncover corruption disguised as ‘commissions’ paid secretly into Swiss bank accounts, no money trail has been discovered so far in the current case. What seems guaranteed is that we have not heard the last of l’affaire Rafale.

The fact is that 36 aircrafts have been ordered for the price negotiated between the two countries. Can India afford to buy 126 aircrafts at one go? No way. So, 36 is a good compromise and all of us should be happy that we are getting even that many after years of inaction by the UPA regime.

What PM did was to fast track the procurement. The decision was in the interest of the nation. Some people make it sound like PM just paid money on the spot and bought aircraft. There were negotiations after PM’s announcement for almost a year and half. If INT gave a final go ahead even with 4-3 majority then it says that there were enough people who felt that the deal was in the interest of the nation. In any case we always had the option of moving away from the deal. The fact that India desperately needed the aircraft must have played on the minds of the people involved. And nobody is perfect. Maybe they will negotiate a better deal next time around. What is important is there is no corruption. I hope this politics stops as this will only harm the interests of our nation.

There should be no compromise on national defence. GOI has opted for latest tech in aircraft and did not compromise. It is a right choice through and through. The Supreme Court announced that all procedures laid down in the Defence rule book were followed. The decision on technical specifications, weapon systems, pricing, numbers of aircrafts are all decided by IAF top brass and Defense ministry experts. Modi has very little role except that of talking to French Govt and clinching a best deal.

Any item except computer model prices will always soar - in ten years time it usually doubles. The bare empty machines are now equipped with stealth equipment which would cost more. BTW, these machines so heavily equipped that China and Pak have no answer to these.

One important point in favor of Rafale which Eurofighter do not have is manufacturer's successful history in India. Mirage 2000 is a plane from Dassault which many IAF staff speaks of very fondly and also have shown outstanding performance in Kargil. India due to this reason has a strong bias towards Rafale.

One thing seems clear, everything is not above board as far as the Rafale deal is concerned. The more hoodwinking the Govt does, the more it will eventually get hurt. There is SC judgement in the case, which, however, did not want to sit in judgement over price aspects. JPC, of course, is a political tool. But that is the one and only sure way to unearth if there had been any error.

It's logical that the development costs have a fixed value and hence the lower the quantity, higher will be the per unit Add-on. But look at the other way, If GOI would have stuck to the 126 number then it would have cost neutral. But, the India’s specific ideas were of 2007 thinking. They were supposed to make it more lethal at that point of time. But technology changes every 3-4 years. So what't the point in procuring outdated numbers in large quantity? So the decision by GOI is right and apt.

Now coming to the current fleet of IAF. At present India has acute shortage of flying aircrafts in 2019 but in 2007 we were in starting stage of shortage of aircrafts. This shortage of aircraft also built pressure on cuurrent government which is not fault of current government. Modi took the decesion in the best interest of the country without involving any middlemen. Nation's safety comes first, cost escalation has been due to 'commission' bates expected by Congress leaders.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Is this a political stunt?' that was published in Newsband

Is this a political stunt?

Was it right to file sedition and conspiracy charges against three former Jawaharlal Nehru University students and seven others? This is heavy-handed response to campus sloganeering. A charge sheet has been filed a few months ahead of the general election. Is this a political stunt?

The shouting of “anti-national” slogans and supporting those who questioned the country’s sovereignty do not merit the use of the sedition law. The essential ingredients of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, that there should be a call for violence or a pernicious tendency to foment public disorder, are conspicuously absent in the case. There has been a disquieting tendency to brand as “anti-national” those who do not endorse all actions of the state.

Courts admit all cases brought forward by the state to be on the safer side, politically and judiciously, and it ends up in causing the much talked about docket explosion. Instead, the courts may take a few days even to go through the entire case file and then decide their admissibility to enhance the efforts to speed up the judicial process as ' justice delayed is justice denied '.

Media seem to have woken up only after 2014 to take a look at "colonial" laws. Weren't they aware of its existence when the same law was applied to stifle disidents right from 50s until recently?

Those things aside, let us come to the shouting of JNU 'students' - was it against the Government or the ruling party? It was well settled by courts that Afsal Guru was the culprit behind Parl attack and the decision to hang him was taken by UPA which meant that across the political spectrum, there was a large consensus on his anti national character. Therefore, Afzal became beyond politics and was a rank anti national. So should the JNU students have shouted the slogan 'we will break India into pieces' and would it be right for the Government to be a silent spectator?

Positive dissent is not sedition but negative dissent i.e.against sovereignty is definitely sedition.Politics itself is source of sedition

The police sometimes choose to ignore the clear guidelines framed by the Supreme Court in 1962, reiterated recently, about what constitutes the offence of sedition. However, trial courts are bound to follow the law of the land. One hopes justice is done, ideally at the stage of taking cognisance itself. Sometimes the process itself is intended to be the punishment.