Peepli Live: Satire and sensibility

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TSI Five-O: A gritty package of some subtle and some not so subtle satire

There are moments in 'Peepli Live' that will make you laugh hard, and the next instant you will overcome with extreme guilt as you realise what you just laughed at. The satire, though sometimes overblown, works brilliantly well with the realistic setting and finely etched characters in holding up the stark reality of rural India to our faces. The ensemble cast (mostly drawn from theatre) blends into the rustic landscape with ease and Anusha Rizvi's direction relies on handheld shots to add an extra coat of realism to the village of Peepli in Mukhya Pradesh. Peepli becomes the eye of a media storm and political frenzy when a marginal farmer Natha announces that he's committing suicide after being unable to pay back his loan. The grand posturing begins for everybody from the central government to the local politicians to every journo worth his 'breaking news' salt as they cash in on Natha's queer fate. Budhiya, the instigator of Natha's decision is played superbly by Raghubir Yadav while Omkar Das as Natha will force you to introspect.

'Peepli Live' is a film that will severely test your sensibility ' after all, it is hard to digest the fact that a serious issue is being made fun of. But that tone is what sets the film apart and also lends solidity to its decrying of the media as publicity hungry hounds insensitive to the human condition. To laugh or not to laugh is your choice, but the decision to give 'Peepli Live' a watch is a no brainer.

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Indian Automobile Industry: Automobile boom'is it sustainable?

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Indian automobile industry is surely on a high! Reporting a whopping 30% growth during the first four months of this fiscal, many auto majors are convinced about their long-term success in the domestic circuit. But is this boom really sustainable?

As the 10th Auto Expo kicked off on January 5, 2010 in New Delhi, a slew of new models were showcased by the global auto giants. Be it Volkswagen, General Motors (GM), Hyundai or Maruti Suzuki, almost all the companies were busy displaying a high level of innovation to catch the fancy of the Indian consumer. While the hatchback segment, in particular, saw the competition growing by many folds, the scenario wasn't really different in the other segments as well (For the uninitiated, products like Chevrolet Beat, Maruti Suzuki Eeco, Volkswagen Polo, et al, made their way into the Indian market taking the auto expo route).

In fact, as FY2009-10 approached its end, the Indian automobile industry was standing tall and smiling wide reporting a whopping 20% growth in the passenger vehicles segment with total sales standing at 1,949,776 units. Many industry watchers warned that the growth during the next year might take a beating because of the high-base effect. But, as the numbers for the April-July period (FY2010-11) flowed in they (including the players) were taken by surprise as the industry had filed a mind-boggling growth of more than 30% with total unit sales in the passenger vehicle segment standing at 7,56,659 units. 'The growth in the first four months came as a surprise to us as well as to the rest of the players. We were expecting just a 10-15 per cent rise in sales during this period,' Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Officer ' Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India tells TSI. In fact, it's the result of this boom that the company today has an order backlog of about 15-20 per cent of monthly sales with most of the models in its portfolio running on a waiting period. Similar is the case with other auto majors who too are trying their best to meet this sudden rise in demand for their products. While the players are celebrating their success, there are critics who are still sceptical about the sustainability of this boom. They question whether this overwhelming response from the Indian consumer can continue for the whole fiscal or is it just a short-lived phenomenon for the industry?

According to the projections made by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the car industry is expected to grow by 12-15 per cent this year. Going by the calculations made by the industry body, the passenger cars segment in India is expected to grow by around 10 per cent per month for the rest of the year. However, the industry officials are of a view that it may just be able to outshine the SIAM's projections this year. There is no denying to the fact that the whopping growth has taken many auto majors by surprise, but as they say, one should always look at both sides of the coin, there has been cases where auto manufacturers have faced the component shortage. For instance, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) recently suffered a production loss due to a shortage of components in the Indian market. 'The automotive division has faced an 8-10% production loss in last quarter due to the shortage of components in the industry,' agrees Pawan Goenka, President (Automotive and Farm Equipment), M&M. In fact, this delay in the supply of auto components has created a situation where auto majors are currently finding it very hard to meet the high demand in the market. 'Such growth was surely unprecedented in the Indian market and it has its own challenges," says Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA). Even the component makers are striving hard to match the level of pace. But it will take them some time before they reach that point.

'Though component shortage is the result of the high growth in the Indian market, it has surely disrupted the expansion plans of several auto majors,' says Arvind Saxena, Director ' Sales & Marketing, Hyundai Motors India. In fact, many industry officials are echoing this view, but they surely believe that as growth will moderate in months to come, component shortage as a problem will automatically find itself a solution. 'No doubt, several component makers are adding capacities at their end, but as the growth moderates, the problem will automatically get resolved,' agrees Vishnu Mathur, Director General, SIAM.

While the high level of growth has been a boon to many companies, it has also taken its own toll on established players. In fact, Maruti Suzuki saw its share falling below the 50% mark in its 25 year history (Currently, the market share of the company stands at 47%). Even its arch rival Hyundai Motors India filed a 2% fall in its market share and is currently holding close to 18% of the Indian passenger car market. 'In the month of July, we had a two week annual shutdown at our plant in Chennai. So, there was hardly any scope to scale up production in that particular month,' says Saxena.

However, these companies are really trying hard to regain their market share. 'We have a target to regain the 50% market share by the end of this fiscal,' Shinzo Nakanishi, MD & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India tells TSI. Notably, the company has recently launched the all new Alto K10, automatic A-Star and CNG technology in its five products (Alto, WagonR, Estilo, Eeco and SX4) to regain the 50% mark in market share. But products like Ford Figo, Chevrolet Beat, Nissan Micra and Volkswagen Polo, which are relatively new to the Indian consumer, have been an instant success in the Indian market and are giving tough competition to Maruti. In fact, Nano has also gained momentum in production at its Sanand unit and the company has so far sold close to 23,000 units in this fiscal. Tata Motors is targeting sales of close to 2.5 lakh units in FY 11. Other auto majors like GM, Ford, et al, have also been able to hit the right spot of the consumer's mind and hence are enjoying one of the best years in their Indian journey so far. 'Figo has been accepted very well by the Indian consumer. The high level of localisation in the product has empowered us to maintain a very aggressive price in its segment,' explains Michael Boneham, MD, Ford India.

However, on the other end, players like Honda SIEL, who are currently running on an ageing portfolio in domestic circuit, have not been able to cash-in on despite a high level of consumer sentiment. For the record, the company has sold close to 16,728 units in this fiscal, which is marginally down as compared to the 17,595 units sold by it in the corresponding period last year. While the City remains the flagship model of the company, other models like Jazz, Accord and Civic are having a tough time in the Indian market. 'Honda needs excitement in its portfolio at this moment. Almost all the models apart form the City are set for upgradation or replacement. Even the high price point of Jazz has emerged as a problem which has resulted in low volumes for the company,' says an automotive consultant on conditions of anonymity.

It may easily be recalled that the Indian automobile industry got a lot of support from the last festival season and with this year's festival period kicking in soon, it is believed that the industry will be able to maintain its growth momentum. But the high base effect may come into play which is expected to result in the moderation of the growth rate. Clearly, the industry may not be able to maintain the level of growth that it has enjoyed so far, but in absolute unit terms, this fiscal will be one of the best in the history of the Indian automotive industry. In fact, a new chapter is all set to unfold in the industry in the coming years. 'This is just the beginning of the automobile boom in the Indian market and the industry will see a lot of action in the years to come,' agrees Abdul Majeed, Leader ' Automotive practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers India.

And why not? As Toyota Etios, Honda's small car, Bajaj-Renault's ultra low-cost car, Hyundai's product below the Santro and many more are expected to make their way into the domestic market, the small car segment in particular will drive the growth for the Indian industry even in the years to come. All in all, the 11th Auto Expo that is slated to happen in 2012 will definitely be worth waiting for.

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Victims of greed

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As a ploy To hound them out of their land and property, women in the tribal belt of rural Gujarat are branded as witches and ostracized even as the law stands by and watches helplessly. Widows and ageing childless women are the most vulnerable

Last week, an agitated group of adivasis surrounded a police station in Chhota Udaypur, Gujarat. They were demanding that the 'witches' who had been taken into custody by the cops be brought before them. Rumours were rife that these 'witches' had turned into horses and cows and then vanished into thin air. Nothing could douse the mounting public hysteria.

In early July, a couple was murdered by village neighbours for allegedly practising witchcraft. Bardan Gurung, 50, and his wife Manshobha, 45, of Satbariya village of Dang district were killed after a local quack, Tekendra Bista, branded the woman as a witch. This was the first-ever case of murder of an alleged witch reported from the district. Every year more than 150 women are killed on suspicion of being witches across India. Every other day Indian newspapers carry headlines about a hapless woman being stripped and paraded naked after being labelled a witch by village quacks.

In industrially developed Gujarat, the principal social indices are far healthier than they are in many other Indian states. Yet, the heinous practice of targeting 'witches' and hounding them out of their homes and villages continues here, especially in the tribal areas of north and south Gujarat.

As elsewhere in India, women thus victimised in Gujarat are invariably land-owning widows or childless women who have no way of defending themselves against the allegation hurled at them. The allegation of witchcraft is levelled against them primarily as a ploy to deprive them of their land and inheritance.

Village folk in the tribal belt of Gujarat are a superstitious lot, and it is quite easy to convince them that a particular woman is a witch whose presence in the village brings ill luck to people around her. A woman can be ostracised for a variety of reasons, ranging from causing somebody's death to crop failure.

'When a woman is suspected of being a witch, villagers march in a procession to her home, accompanied by local leaders and panchayat members. Once they reach the house, a quack drops a lentil seed in water. If the pulse keeps floating on the surface, the woman is branded as a witch,' says Sejal Dand, coordinator of the NGO, Area Networking and Development Initiatives (ANANDI).

'What follows is an unending ordeal for the woman who is singled out. She is humiliated, tortured and, in some cases, chilli powder is thrown into her eyes. Sometimes, the poor woman is even killed,' adds Ms Dand.

In yet another incident, the childless Mangliben and her husband were mercilessly beaten up recently by family members who blamed them for the death of a child. They accused Mangliben of casting an evil eye on the family and its members. The couple was subsequently driven out of the village. They approached the police for help but the law, under pressure from the relatives of the hapless couple, turned a blind eye to the atrocity. The couple was hounded out of the police station as well.

'Mangliben owned an eight-acre plot of land and the family members had their eyes on it for a long time,' says Guliben Nayak of Devgarh Mahila Sangh. Every month, at least one case of a widow or childless woman being labelled a witch is reported from the tribal district of Dahod, she points out. In virtually every such case, the affected woman owns ancestral property and land. When her family and neighbours turn against her, the entire tribal society tends to believe the allegation of witchcraft and joins in socially boycotting the woman. And once she is hounded out of the village and the community, it becomes easy to transfer her inheritance to the name of her father-in-law or brother-in-law.

Ms Dand recounts the sad plight of a widow who, even 25 years after the death of her husband, continues to seek justice in vain. 'After Sukhaliben's husband, Rupsinh Nayak of Santalpur village of Dahod district, passed away, her in-laws claimed that she was involved in witchcraft and forced her to leave the village. She is not even allowed to plough her husband's land. We are trying our best to wrest back her rights through legal means. But for now, Sukhaliben is struggling to make ends meet in Dahod city,' the activist says.

Ms Dand blames severe poverty, social banishment and the absence of a law to protect vulnerable rural women for the victims' inability to fight back. She says: The state of Jharkhand, for instance, has a firm law against those who commit crimes against women by invoking the fear of witchcraft. Offences that are registered under the Jharkhand Prevention of Witch Practices Act are cognizable and non-bailable.'

In Gujarat, however, there is no separate law which can be applied in police stations when such cases are reported. Most such cases are registered under the regular provisions of the Indian Penal Code. 'The offence in this scenario is a bailable one. So culprits can get away quite easily,' says Ms Dand.

In most cases of this nature, the culprits are male relatives. They have enough clout within the community to put pressure on the police to withdraw the complaints that the victims lodge. The local authorities, too, refrain from supporting the victims. If ever the matter comes up before a court, every effort is made for an out of court settlement, which, needless to say, is usually in favour of the perpetrators of the crime.

It isn't just illiterate villagers who are behind this reprehensible practice. Even educated people are unable to take an informed stand. Mahendra Rathava, a man who possesses a Master's degree in Hindi literature, says, 'I cannot argue with my parents on this issue.' In fact, so deep-rooted is the culture of obscurantism here that many refuse to talk about the subject for the fear of being 'punished' by the dakan (witch).

Ms Dand says, 'Lack of education and adequate health facilities has aggravated the problem manifold. The government should bolster the health infrastructure and promote awareness among tribals in this area. It should also concentrate on formulating proper legislation to protect vulnerable tribal widows and childless women.' Until that happens, women like Sita Sonvane, Somuben Gamit, Sharda Asari, Mattiben, Dahali Nayak and Mangliben will continue to suffer. Some NGOs, like the one that Ms Dand represents, are trying to help them, but justice remains a distant dream.

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The inheritance of loss

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First it was a mammoth dam, then an open cast coal mining project, and now the expansion of a thermal power station: the spectre of displacement has stalked the Hirakud oustees for six decades.

The bitter memories haven't deserted Boudhyan Sahu and Bidesi Pradhan. They reside in Tilia village of Orissa's Jharsuguda district. They remember their younger days when both, along with their parents, had to leave their ancestral homes under duress. The shock and trauma of eviction are still fresh in Sahu's mind although 60 years have gone by/ 'It will haunt me till I die. It was terrible. I pray to God nobody else faces such a fate,' he says as tears well up in his eyes.

Sahu goes on: 'The officials arrived under police protection and ordered us to vacate our houses. We left our homes with whatever belongings we could muster. We had no choice. Anybody who resisted was forcibly removed from the area by the police.'

The forced eviction of the villagers was done to pave the way for the construction of the Hirakud dam on the Mahanadi. This was the first major project of the post-Independence era that caused large-scale displacement. It submerged 285 villages (249 in Orissa, 36 in Chhattisgarh, then part of Madhya Pradesh), affecting 26,501 families. The project was greeted with protests from the people. So the government deployed the police to evict the population and clear the obstacles in the way of the Hirakud dam.

Worse was to follow. Not only were many of the oustees inadequately rehabilitated, the displaced families did not even receive the compensation that they were promised. The compensation is still lying with the government as there are no reliable official records about many of the displaced families.

Some of the uprooted families that were resettled in Jharsuguda district are now facing the prospect of being displaced again. The Orissa Power Generation Corporation's thermal power station in Jharsuguda is in the process of being expanded and these hapless people will have to pay the price for development.

Virtually every family in this area has members who remember the days leading up to the Hirakud dam construction. Legally, no citizen of this country can be evicted from his habitation without being given a proper rehabilitation package. But for the Hirakud oustees, this norm was thrown to the winds. Many displaced families fled in panic, leaving behind their belongings and cattle, never to return. Police excesses scared them away.

As per available reports, only Rs 340 lakh was paid to the oustees. That was only about one-third of the allocated amount ' Rs 960 lakh. Only 4744 families (21.42 per cent of the total displaced) were rehabilitated. These included some tribal and scheduled caste families.

Among the families rehabilitated, 3098 families (65.3 per cent) did not receive full compensation till as late as the 1990s. However, during the reign of the late Biju Patnaik, the Orissa government took steps to locate the displaced families and pay them the compensation. A few of these families were lucky to get their compensation, but it was too late. After Biju Patnaik, the issue was shoved into cold storage as none of the subsequent chief ministers deigned it fit to address the plight of the Hirakud dam oustees. The fate of those who settled down in Jharsuguda remained unchanged as the Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd) needed land to begin coal mining in the Ib Valley in 1985. The company acquired 926.6 hectares and formulated a resettlement policy of its own and forcibly displaced people for its mines.

Five open cast mines affected 18 villages and 1353 families. The most affected villages were Kudapali, Jorabaga, Bundhia, Jamkani, Tolipali, Bandbahal, Lajkura, Lamtibahal and Lohrapara. Though the MCL authorities claim to have rehabilitated the displaced with utmost diligence, problems continue to fester here.

In 1989, the foundation stone of the Ib Valley Thermal Power Station was laid by the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. The plant, once it was up and running, started functioning at Banaharpali (Jharsuguda district) under OPGC. About 329 families in three villages were affected by the power station. Of these, 146 families were fully displaced. Many still reside in the resettlement colony constructed by the company. The thermal power station has two units with a total generation of 420 MW (210X2) at present.

History is now set to repeat itself. The people of the region, particularly in the Tilia panchayat area of the district, are in danger of losing home and hearth as the government wants to acquire land for the expansion work of the thermal power station. The proposed expansion project (3rd and 4th units) would be aimed at generating 1,320 MW (660 MW each) of power at an investment of Rs 10,000 crore, besides development of captive coal mines and a rail link between the power plant and coal mines. The US power company, AES Corporation, has agreed to take up the expansion work to be started as early as the first quarter of 2011. The company shares 49 per cent of the stakes while OPGC controls the remaining 51 per cent. The company has been allotted two coal mines with a total reserve of 530 million tonnes in the Manoharpur and Deep Manoharpur areas of Sundergarh district. Though the expansion project was mooted in 2003-04, it could not start because of a dispute over power sharing between the two partners. The chief minister laid the foundation stone for the expansion project in 2004. "The OPGC will supply 50 per cent of power from its expansion project at a cost determined by the OERC (Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission) to the state, while the remaining 50 per cent can be sold in the open market," a senior official said.

For the proposed expansion, the government will acquire about 277 acres of private land belonging to residents of Tilia and two other villages. 'We have received a notice from the land acquisition office of Jharsuguda district. We have been spending sleepless nights. We live in fear that we will be evicted from our dwellings once again,' says Srinivas Pradhan, a Hirakud dam oustee and resident of Tilia panchayat area.

The locals have asked the government to give proper attention to rehabilitation of and compensation for those who surrender their land. They have organised themselves under the banner of OPGC Bistapan Surakhya Manch to demand compensation of Rs 30 lakh per acre. They have also demanded one job for each displaced family or an additional Rs 10 lakh in case one does not opt for employment. 'Apart from this provision, we have also emphatically demanded that proper drinking water, healthcare and education be made available for people in the rehabilitation colony,' the convener of the Manch, Yagya Narayan Pradhan, said.

Meanwhile, the people of Jharsuguda have expressed concern over the worsening levels of pollution in Ib valley. 'Once hailed for its natural beauty, Ib valley has turned into a polluted hell-hole owing to the coal mines and numerous industries. We demand that the government should take steps to prevent the setting up of new industries or expansion of any existing industry in the Ib valley region in the interest of the people who reside in the district,' Mohammad Rauf, head of CARE (Creative Action to Restitute Environment), an organization that works for the protection of the ecology in Jharsuguda district, told TSI.

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