| The week’s heady G20 event in Kashmir and the grand feet-touching reception at Papua New Guinea have firmly raised the global stature of India, and by extension, PM Modi. It is the Vishwaguru moment. If Modi accrues all the benefits of this tag, DK Singh asked a provocative question: Does the opposition have a match for the Vishwaguru? Going by the stated positions of their leaders, they would rather leave this ‘Modi vs who’ question for later. That just throws up way too many contenders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Just as the new Parliament inauguration led to an opposition boycott, after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted asking why President Draupadi Murmu isn’t the one presiding over the ceremony, came the Sengol sceptre controversy. It drove a wedge in politics and history again. Praveen Chakravarty wrote that the tradition of handing over Sengol to a new king is a Chola dynasty custom, though scholars of the Sangam era date it even earlier. The most iconic historiography of a Sengol is an 18th-century painting in the famous Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai in which the goddess is handing over the sceptre to the Nayaka kings. There is another painting in the Ramalinga Vilasam palace of the 18th-century Sethupathi kings in the Ramanathapuram district where Goddess Rajarajeshwari is seen giving a Sengol to a Sethupathi king.
In contemporary Tamil politics, the most famous incident involving a Sengol happened in Madurai in July 1986 when J. Jayalalitha handed it to MGR. Now, going by tradition, the Sengol must be handed over to Modi by President Draupadi Murmu.
Dilip Mandal, however, reminded readers that Jawaharlal Nehru has set a precedent by delivering the Independence Day speech with his ‘tryst with destiny’ address and also inaugurating major national institutions.
Yogendra Yadav wrote about the sorry state of Hindi journalism in India today. A TV panel discussion that he participated in after the Karnataka election results made him conclude that the world of TV news is an “upper-caste affair”. The anchor’s narrative was simple: BJP has been defeated not by its own incompetence and corruption but by some dirty caste politics, part of a diabolic design that would culminate in the nationwide demand for caste census.
Sixty Muslim candidates from the BJP won in the Uttar Pradesh municipal elections this month, a sign of a thriving, inclusive democracy, wrote Amana Begam. The BJP’s decision to field so many Muslims is a substantial stride towards promoting a more diverse political landscape.
What exactly happened in the subcontinent after the decline of the Harappan Civilisation is a frequently asked question in the past seven decades. Some said a ‘Dark Age’ followed, other said painted grey ware. Bhagwanpura village threw up answers. Disha Ahluwalia wrote that before the Bhagwanpura excavation, the association of Harappans with people who used Painted Grey Ware was unknown and blurry.
Let’s stay with history for a bit. And don’t roll your eyes, but 7th century Indian engineers actually built robots. Anirudh Kanisetti brought evidence from Buddhist texts.
Two horrific events divided by a decade tell us about the predatory medical system in Bihar. Jyoti Yadav brought us this deep-dive Ground Reports on how poor Dalit women were robbed of their wombs a decade ago, and now, once again, there is a kidney scam that has left women in a state of paralysing fear and despair.
Shubhangi Mishra travelled to Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh and brought us articles on the Congress party’s outreach to temple and priests. The ambitious corridor project at the Kaushalya temple is part of CM Bhupesh Baghel’s Hinduism project, on top of his cow dung buyback. She also looks at the new temple priest outreach by the Congress party in Madhya Pradesh – but it is easier said than done. The priests want ownership of temple land – a matter festering in files and courts for years.
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