Lit for Life Day 1 live | Liberal democracy is on the back foot, says Sashi Kumar

Updated Date: 1/12/2019

Category: Political News

With names such as Arun Shourie, John Keay and Daniel Handler, the ninth edition ofThe Hindu Lit for Life will balance the hard talk with fun, insight and much more

The ninth edition of The Hindu Lit for Life has a whole gamut of sessions: on the future of democracy, the #MeToo movement, the art and politics of dissent, mental illness, poetry, and ecology, to name a few.

Speakers include Arun Shourie, the economist-journalist, British historian and journalist John Keay; Meghna Gulzar, whose latest film, Raazi , was one of the best-liked films of 2018; Audrey Truschke, whose work on Aurangzeb has thrown her in the eye of a storm; and VVS Laxman, whose career will always be remembered for his ability to score tough runs.

Here are the latest updates:

Making India Work: Arun Shourie in conversation with N. Ravi at the The Hindu Lit For Life in Chennai on Saturday.   | Photo Credit: M. Vedhan

Eminent journalist and political commentator Arun Shourie in conversation with the Publisher of The Hindu, N. Ravi at the session Making India Work.

N. Ravi initiates the discussion on Mr. Shouries book Anita Gets Bail in which the latter narrates the travails of his wife Anita being prosecuted for an alleged environmental law provision.

Mr. Shourie reads out from his book Anita Gets Bail and takes a dig at certain judgements of the Supreme Court. He says they [judges of the Court] do not, most often, consequences of their judgements.

Mr. Ravi refers to the DA case concerning former Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa. Between the conclusion of arguments [at the Supreme Court] and the delivery of judgement, seven months had passed and Jayalalithaa had died. How do you see the role of SC and High Court?

Mr. Shourie says, When the case moves to the higher court, then discussions come up on who the expert will be, how he will be selected. Every matter will be sent to appeal and the gentleman who was the advocate general for Karnataka, he said that by the end he could write a book on the law of adjournments. After the examination, the Karnataka High Court judge gave an absolutely shameless judgment.

Mr. Ravi, in the context of the Supreme Courts judgement on Rafale deal, says, The Court may be supreme but not infallible.

Mr. Shourie on Rafale deal controversy, questions the refusal of the government to disclose price. He recalls that in the past, the price had been stated in Parliament with regard to the Mirage deal. He terms as a betrayal of the requirements of the national security the way the Supreme Court has handled the Rafale deal case. On Modi, What I initially saw as harmless errors should have been recognised as traits, which I came to realise later.

We must not recognise any personal law of any religion at all. They should all be done away with,Mr. Shourie answering a question on Tradition vs Womens rights. On Sabarimala row - While womens solution is to go to the temple whereas my solution is: I will never go there.

Governance A Responsibility: S. Peter Alphonse, Mahendran, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Thol. Thirumavalavan in conversation with S. Karthigachemvan (third from left) at the The Hindu Lit for Life in Chennai on Saturday.   | Photo Credit: M. Vedhan

A session in Tamil, Governance A Responsibility begins with C. Mahendran, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, S. Peter Alphonse and Thol. Thirumavalavan in conversation with S. Karthigaichelvan.

Journalist Karthigaichelvan says the discussion will be on freedom, safety, stable government and so on.

DMKs Kanimozhi says both a stable and a responsible government is necessary. If we question a governments stability time and again, then that government in not a very functional, people-centric government at all.

CPIs Mahendran speaks about various issues being faced by the society. CPI stands tall when it comes to democracy.

VCKs Thol. Thirumavalavan says a responsbile government is more important. Instead of seeing it as a code of governance, it should be seen as doctrine of governance. Only the rulers have responsibility to see that every citizen is able to follow his rights. Education is not for employment, rather it is for awareness.

S. Peter Alphonse says everyone needs a safety net. He mentions the Pongal benefit of ₹1000 in Tamil Nadu becoming an issue of debate among the people. Economic zones, malls dont really help the majority of the people.

Husain Haqqani: We should try and make a distinction between what is and what we want to think it is. What we must be weary of, is when something that is driven by an algorithm, it is somebody else maneuvering and manipulating the system.

Five countries were made custodians of global peace. But many countries have nuclear weapons. Maybe we are entering into an era in which there will be less order in the world than we have known in our entire lives. And James point that China and what China wants will shape what is going to happen to the rest of the world a lot more than our familiar patterns of understanding the world.

Sashi Kumar: We have had a long era of peace. This is a very Euro-North American view. There is suffering and inequalities everywhere. A world order is not a cosmetic reality. It is lived lives of people in large parts of Asia, Africa, even European countries, the strife and the struggle.

Writer John Keay: In the case of China, I dont think the world really understands China at all. My experience of China as a writer of history is that the Chinese have always been interested in their immediate neighbours. But theyve never taken an interest in the wide world beyond them. I think they want to be involved more in world councils and that sort of recognition might defuse the situation say in South China Sea or the relations with Taiwan and so on.

The Chinese have come up with this amazing Belgium Road. We should try and work out what theyre trying to do and how we can all engage and profit from it.

Sashi Kumar: People are electing authoritarian regimes. We have ethnocentric kind of forces. We have street mobs, lynchings. What kind of democracy is this?

Husain Haqqani speaks: The last few years there were a lot of problems. But it did not have anything comparable to the world wars. I think more human beings live in relative prosperity compared to 70 years ago. The global order always needs adjustment and democracy also needs improvement. Democracy is recognition of the rights of minorities also. All of a sudden all these leaders are using democracy to deprive the minority of their rights. We need 3 major course corrections.

i) Within democracy, people need to push for the rights of the minority, as much as the rights of the majority. Let the majority have its way but lets guard against authoritarian leaders.

ii) We need to preserve world order. We need to put up a fight for that these structures need to be improved. They dont need to be demolished. We need to deal with rogue nations.

iii) We need to recognise that just as when America was the rising superpower, many of us were critics of their behaviour. It is okay to criticise the behaviour of the new rising superpower because thats how you keep the world in balance. Let there be order.

The next session is Shaping the New World Order. Husain Haqqani, James Crabtree, John Keay and Suki Kim in conversation with Sashi Kumar.

Liberal democracy is on the back foot. We dont know the future of democracy. Democracy doesnt always comes with the idea of liberalism. Let this panel look at whats the future of democracy, says Asianet founder Sashi Kumar.

Author of Pakistan Between Mosque & Military& Magnificent Delusions, Pakistan ambassador to U.S. 2008-2011, Husain Haqqani speaks: U.S. ended up having half the worlds GDP at one point. Calling someone an internationalist used to be a word of praise. Now its denigration. Brexit may not have been possible if Britain had an era of only newspapers. It is a reversal of internationalism and globalisation. The structures that existed are coming apart.

Writer & journalist James Crabtree gives his inputs: After the Doklam conflict, and Modis trip to Wuhan, even though India and Japan are concerned about Chinas rise, we are in for a rough ride. How are you going to position yourself between an erratic unreliable America and an increasingly assertive China? If youre a country like India, atleast America and China havent banned you and decided to divide the world up between them.

Writer & journalist Suki Kim: Media creates a perception on peace in Korean peninsula. But a lot of talks and photo-ops have happened. In reality, North Korea has not given up nuclear weapons.

Back to conversation with Lemony Snicket. He narrates how he managed to publish poetry. He recalls how he was paid in American dollars when he was in Canada. Since the currency couldnt be used in there, he saved them and used it to publish poetry.

A couple of Snicket books are in the annvil. There are also many Lemony Snicket cocktails. He has written cocktail books too.

How did you come up with such characters, asks a member from the audience. Thats because I dont have a job, he says. He also says people and events he met in his life too have an influence.

Why dark genre? Because many terrible things happen in real life, the author says.