On 25th I went to vote for first time. Reached at the booth before it opened and was done within an hour. Double Padma.
Voting for Aparijita Sarangi the sitting BJP MP was no brainer. For Jatani AC seat, I was torn between BJD and BJP till last moment. In 2019, the seat was won by Sura "ମାଡି ଚାଲ" Routray. Sura Bhai by the way have given us this masterpiece:
Last time he won by about 5% of the votes and talking to locals he appeared to be quite strong a candidate. But the six time MLA decided it was time to pass the seat to his sons. I am not aware of what happened but in the end his younger son ended up on a BJD ticket for Bhubaneswar LS and he was later thrown out of INC for "anti party activities." There was no Congress appreciation after that, so rather than a tactical vote to keep INC out, I pressed on the Lotus.
Anyway lets vote for results, and hope I actually posting once in a while here.
Another year has passed since I started keeping my record on Goodreads. 2023 was a year of change for me, I moved out of my house for the first time to join Integrated-PhD at NISER. Undoubtedly, these transformative experiences must have left its mark on my reading journey. Anyway, let us start with some stats that GR provides.
Books read: 98 Pages read: 33,813 Average Book Length: 345 Average Reading: 2.8
The year started with finishing Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies which was a 5/5. I really do need to buy the other two books in the series. Next was Joad's Guide to Modern Thought, which was my first review of the year. Quoting from the review:
My edition is a reprint of 1947 edition, so "modern" in the title may be misleading now. The book primarily focuses on the impact of certain scientific discoveries, including some pseudoscientific concepts such as ghost mediums, on philosophy.
I have no idea why the book has an average rating of 3.89/5.
I read Basic Income: A Transformative Policy For India which converted me to a pro Basic income (as far as Micro Implications are considered, I have yet to study macro implications in detail.) A compelling read that should be on the must-read list for Economics and Public Policy courses. Another book related to policy was Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India. It is written by the son of the current CJI and the grandson of another. Found him a bit biased in the direction I thought he would be, but a fine book nonetheless. Lidl & Pilz's Applied Abstract Algebra was a great book I read for the course in Discrete Mathematics. I hope my research in future would be in a related direction.
Next were some books which could be called to be aligned to Pro Hindutva ideology. As in often the case with such books, I had to read Kautilya on moral hazard, poverty & systemic risk and Mathematical Method of Sanskrit Grammar both of which were products of Quackery. In fact I think I read a lot of quackery this year which must explain the low average rating. This is when I read Vikram Sampath's most talked about Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924 which I think will become a classic. I have already ordered the second part in Hindi but have had not the time to read it yet. Interesting is that I finished the book on 7th July while started in May. This means I was reading it throughout my BSc and entrance exams. How I read it this long when the college library did not allow reissuing of the book? Its all thanks to the symbiotic relation me and Aman Kushwaha had (thought I have left to believe the scales were heavily tilted in my favour.) Anyway, the biography have left me further in awe of Hindutva.
The next book worth mentioning was Grokking Algorithms An Illustrated Guide For Programmers and Other Curious People. Initially I read it to prepare for interview at IACS (wherein for unknown reasons I managed to get AIR 1 in the written exam.) Although due to network issues (and honesty I had no heart to join even if selected since I already had the offer letter from NISER) I did not give the interview, the study of algorithms is quite interesting.
Upto this point, a majority of books I read came from library of my College (or via LibGen.) I did not notice at that point but SVC library is very well stocked and it was a joy to randomly find books in it. In comparison to it, NISER library is nearly empty, possibly due to the much more focused nature of the institution or due to the small time it has been since its establishment. But anyway, the SVC library is much missed. The first book I finished from the new library was My Numbers, My Friends: Popular Lectures on Number Theory, not really much interesting.
A look at my reading list would have helped justified the name of the blog - बहुश्रुतस्य परिभ्रमान् - the ramblings of one who have heard a lot. I hope to write randomly on random topics I become obsessed with at that time in the blog.
Inclusion of Hindu Rituals during the inauguration has been a common point of attack on the Building, though the rather curious quantifier “so-called” seems to be an invention of Nillansh, and one is left to wonder what it may been as it has not been expounded upon in the original article.
Still, one is left wondering how come so many people miss the Sarv-Dharam prayer held during the function, which have been norm for government activities. Or if they did not miss, do they have no problems with the Islamic rituals, or those of other faith, with their disdain being reserved only for “So Called” Hindu Rituals?
And if one is talking of Sengol, which is the symbol that sovereignty now rests with the preamble People of India, enough have already been written on the matter that most people have made up their minds. It would only be a waste of time and space to reproduce those arguments here, but I wouldrecommendRia Pillai’s analysis of the narrative surround it on how it relates to our notions on caste.
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Revealing the Controversy-Free Origin Story
Another aspect that deserves attention is the claim that the new parliament project was mired in controversy from its inception. Keeping in mind the great Indian babudom,it is evident that such an ambitious undertaking would not have been conceived overnight. In fact it was the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar from UPA who first suggested building of a new parliament. More recently when both the houses of parliament officially requested for a new parliament, not a single MP opposed the demand. Clearly showing how much of the criticism from political parties have been a post hoc justification for achieving political brownie points rather than genuine opposition. It is crucial to scrutinize the motives behind the criticisms and separate them from the actual merits of the project itself.
But Why during Pandemic?
Another criticism, which in my opinion seems to be mist genuine, has been that while a new parliament may have been required, government could have postponed it due to the Pandemic. First we have to remember that the final master plan for Central Vista project was done in 2019, months before the pandemic. Also the new parliament costs ₹ 862 crore. Or a measly 6 rupees per capita, how this amount could meaningfully contribute to the health sector in face of ₹ 82,928 crore budget with the Health ministry in 2020-21 alone is beyond me. Another comparison is that Government of Delhi spend ₹ 1,100 crore on just advertisement in last three years.
While it is true that healthcare spending is often inadequate, the solution does not lie in being frugal in other areas.
Another way to look at the issue it that the entire project generated about 37 lakh man-days of labour during the pandemic, at a time when people were facing an unprecedented unemployment crisis, it surely helped. And stimulus in form of infrastructure spending have been a well known remedy during economic slowdown ever since the times of Keynes. When we couple in the cost that delays in project result into and well as the impressive savings of ₹ 1,000 crores that the project will result in, it becomes clear that there is a good enough case for continuing with the project.
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Conclusion
While issues raised against the delamination of Lok Sabha seats are complex and emotive one, making it a case against the New Parliament is rather childish – “We will stop increasing the number of MPs by making it physically impossible for them to sit.” I confess not having done a deep study of the problem but I am generally in favour of delamination happening considering how freezing of the constituencies have resulted into the overrepresentation of people of states like Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha while people of states like UP, Bihar and Maharashtra are underrepresented. (I use the phrase “people of states” knowingly and deliberately to distinguish myself from people who talk of representation of states.)
(Image courtesy India’s Emerging Crisis of Representation by Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson via ThePrint)
Similarly childish is the worry about being “shown undemocratic in world media”, it is not for desk editors of foreign papers to say, when crores of vote are voting and electing the government we seek. As one commentator said, “Row over Parliament building shows politics in India never stops, national symbol or not.”I would end by quoting former PM Deve Gowda, one among the “South Indian opposition leaders” who are often evoked in these debates regarding the new parliament:
I have many reasons to oppose BJP politically. But, I don’t want to bring politics in the matter of inauguration of Sansad Bhavan. I have been elected to both the Houses of the parliament. I have rendered my duties in the constitutional framework. I can’t bring politics into the matter of the constitution.
PTI. “New Parliament Building Necessity, No MP Objected When Both Houses Requested for It: Om Birla.” The Times of India, 18 June 2021, timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/new-parliament-building-necessity-no-mp-objected-when-both-houses-requested-for-it-om-birla/articleshow/83639783.cms.
“New Parliament Bhavan Isn’t…: Former PM HD Deve Gowda’s Big Statement Amid Row Over Inauguration.” DNA India, www.dnaindia.com/india/report-new-parliament-bhavan-isn-t-former-pm-hd-deve-gowda-s-big-statement-amid-row-over-inauguration-3044562.
Sinha, Bhadra. “New Central Vista Will Save Rs 1,000 Crore Spent Annually on Rent Expenditure, Govt Tells SC.” ThePrint, 3 Nov. 2020, theprint.in/judiciary/new-central-vista-will-save-rs-1000-crore-spent-annually-on-rent-expenditure-govt-tells-sc/536402.
Vagliasindi, Maria, and Nisan Gorgulu. “What have we learned about the effectiveness of infrastructure investment as a fiscal stimulus? A literature review.” (2021).
IANS. “Central Vista Projects Generate Over 3.7 Mn Man-days of Employment.” www.business-standard.com, 8 Sept. 2022, www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/central-vista-projects-generate-over-3-7-mn-man-days-of-employment-122090801097_1.html.
Express News Service. “Delhi Govt Claims Lack of Funds for RRTS Project, SC Calls for Ad Spend Details.” The Indian Express, 3 July 2023, indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/sc-delhi-government-ad-spend-8698928.
“Demand for Grants 2021-22 Analysis: Health and Family Welfare.” PRS Legislative Research, prsindia.org/budgets/parliament/demand-for-grants-2021-22-analysis-health-and-family-welfare.
