Bihar caste survey data released: A look at the complicated history of caste surveys

 

Every Census in independent India from 1951 to 2011 has published data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but not on other castes. Before that, every Census until 1931 had data on caste.

The Bihar government has released the results of its recently concluded survey of castes in the state, which reveals that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constitute more than 63% of the population of Bihar.

CM Nitish Kumar congratulated the entire team involved in the caste survey process and said: “Resolution on caste-based survey was passed in the Bihar legislature through consensus. Nine political parties had taken a call in the Bihar Assembly on the state government bearing expenses of the caste survey.

The survey has not only considered one’s caste but also one’s economic status, which would help us devise further policies and plans for the development of all classes.”

What kind of caste data is published in the Census?

Every Census in independent India from 1951 to 2011 has published data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but not on other castes. Before that, every Census until 1931 had data on caste.However, in 1941, caste-based data was collected but not published. M W M Yeats, the then Census Commissioner, said a note: “There would have been no all India caste table… The time is past for this enormous and costly table as part of the central undertaking…” This was during World War II.

In the absence of such a census, there is no proper estimate for the population of OBCs, various groups within the OBCs, and others. The Mandal Commission estimated the OBC population at 52%, some other estimates have been based on National Sample Survey data, and political parties make their own estimates in states and Lok Sabha and Assembly seats during elections.

How often has the demand for a caste census been made?

It comes up before almost every Census, as records of debates and questions raised in Parliament show. The demand usually comes from among those belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) and other deprived sections, while sections from the upper castes oppose the idea. This time, however, things have been quite different. With Census 2021 delayed several times, the Opposition parties have made the loudest cry for a caste census as they seem to have converged on “social justice” as their slogan and glue. Earlier this year, while campaigning in Karnataka, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the Narendra Modi government should reveal the data of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) conducted under the UPA-II government. Moreover, he called for a caste census and for the removal of the 50% cap on SC/ST/OBC reservations.

In July 2021, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in response to a question in Lok Sabha: “The Government of India has decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in Census.”

Before this statement, Nityanand Rai had told the Rajya Sabha in March 2021: “The Union of India after Independence, decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs.”

But on August 31, 2018, following a meeting chaired by then Home Minister Rajnath Singh that reviewed preparations for Census 2021, the Press Information Bureau stated in a statement: “It is also envisaged to collect data on OBC for the first time.”

When The Indian Express filed an RTI request asking for the minutes of the meeting, the Office of Registrar General of India (ORGI) responded: “Records of deliberations in ORGI prior to MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) announcement on August 31, 2018, to collect data on OBC is not maintained. There was not issued any minutes of the meeting.”

Where did the UPA stand on this?

In 2010, then Law Minister Veerappa Moily wrote to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling for the collection of caste/community data in Census 2011. On March 1, 2011, during a short-duration discussion in Lok Sabha, Home Minister P Chidambaram spoke of several “vexed questions”: “There is a Central list of OBCs and State-specific list of OBCs. Some States do not have a list of OBCs; some StateThe Registrar General has also pointed out that there are certain open-ended categories in the lists such as orphans and destitute children. Names of some castes are found in both the list of Scheduled Castes and the list of OBCs. Scheduled Castes converted to Christianity or Islam are also treated differently in different States. The status of a migrant from one State to another and the status of children of inter-caste marriage, in terms of caste classification, are also vexed questions.”

What happened to the SECC data, then?

With an approved cost of Rs 4,893.60 crore, the SECC was conducted by the Ministry of Rural Development in rural areas and the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in urban areas. The SECC data excluding caste data was finalised and published by the two ministries in 2016.s have a list of OBCs and a sub-set called Most Backward Classes.

The raw caste data was handed over to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which formed an Expert Group under former NITI Aayog Vice-Chairperson Arvind Pangaria for classification and categorisation of data. It is not clear whether it submitted its report; no such report has been made public.

The report of a Parliamentary Committee on Rural Development presented to the Lok Sabha Speaker on August 31, 2016, noted about SECC: “The data has been examined and 98.87 per cent data on individuals’ caste and religion is error free. ORGI has noted the incidence of errors with respect to 1,34,77,030 individuals out of the total SECC population of 118,64,03,770. States have been advised to take corrective measures.”

What is the contrary view?

The RSS has not made any statements on a caste census in a while now, but has opposed the idea earlier. On May 24, 2010, when the debate on the subject had peaked ahead of Census 2011, then RSS sar-karyawah Suresh Bhaiyaji Joshi had said in a statement from Nagpur: “We are not against registering categories, but we oppose registering castes.” He had said a caste-based census is against the idea of a casteless society envisaged by leaders like Babasaheb Ambedkar in the Constitution and will weaken ongoing efforts to create social harmony.

Source: Indian Express, 3/10/23

India justice report 2020: One in 4 cops in Bihar a woman, highest among states

 At 25.3 per cent, Bihar leads the list of 25 states for employing most women in its police force, according to the second annual survey on police, prisons, judiciary and legal aid, India Justice Report, released on Thursday.

The state finished ahead of Himachal Pradesh (19.2%) and Tamil Nadu (18.5%).

However, although it is the only state to have more than 20 per cent women in the police force, women account for only 6.1 per cent in the officer category. Tamil Nadu, the report says, has the highest percentage of women police officers (24.8%) , followed by Mizoram (20.1%).

On diversity, Karnataka is the only state to meet its quotas for SC, ST and OBC in both officer cadre and constabulary, Chhattisgarh being the only other state that meets the diversity requirements for constabulary.

The report analysed expenditure, vacancies, representation of women and members of SC, ST and Other Backward Classes, across 18 large and mid-sized states with a population of over 1 crore and eight smaller states. The report was an initiative of Tata Trusts, along with the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, CHRI, DAKSH and TISS-Prayas and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

The lack of representation of women as judges in high courts is telling. Sikkim tops the list with 33.3 per cent women – Sikkim High Court has just three judges, Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai being its lone woman judge. Overall, only 29 per cent judges in HCs across the country are women, but no state except Of the rest, Andhra Pradesh tops the list with 19 per cent, followed by Punjab and Haryana, where the common HC for the two states has 18.2 per cent women judges.

Four states — Bihar, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Meghalaya — have no woman judge in its high courts.

Despite the low figures, women’s representation has marginally increased in police, prisons and the judiciary, the report mentions. Women account for 10 per cent of all police personnel, up from 7 per cent in January 2017; 13 per cent prison staff (10% in December 2016); 29.3% of judges (26.5% in 2017-18).

Overall, Maharashtra retained the top spot on delivery of justice to people among 18 large and mid-sized states, followed by Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Punjab and Kerala.

The report also noted that an overwhelming two-thirds of all prisoners are undertrials awaiting a conviction.Sikkim has over 20 per cent women judges.

Source: Indian Express, 29/01/21

Bihar’s lost city: A newly unearthed Buddhist monastery holds vital clues

 Ward No 33, Jaynagar village, Lakhisarai is some 125 kilometres east of Patna. Here, on a hilltop known as Lal Pahari, a recent discovery of two burnt clay sealings has left researchers ecstatic.

The burnt sealings recovered from the site records: śrīmaddharmahāvihārik āryabhikṣusaṅghasya which translates into “this is the sealing of the council of monks of the Srimaddhama vihara.” The inscription on the sealings are written in Sanskrit and the script is Siddhamātṛkā dating around the 8th-9th century.

Researchers say the discovery is evidence to the fact that the excavated area atop the red-soiled hill was a Buddhist monastery of the early medieval period. The geographical location of the site also makes it the first such hilltop monastery in the entire Gangetic valley. Artefacts extracted from the site also substantiate a nearly 140-year-old clue that the monastery was run by a woman monk named Vijayshree Bhadra.

The excavation at Lal Pahari is yet another clue found in recent years as part of a larger effort by researchers and government officials to resurrect a long-forgotten, prosperous city called Krimila, which has been identified in and around the present-day town of Lakhisarai.

The ancient city

The ancient city of Krimila is said to be a religious-cum-administrative centre in eastern India during the early medieval period. A flourishing urban settlement, Krimila is said to have been famous for the manufacture of stone sculpture, particularly Tibetan-Buddhist sculptures. The region drew the attention of ancient scholars, travellers and was explored from time to time by British and later by Indian scholars.

The region was first surveyed by Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham, a British Army engineer who took interest in archaeology and went to form what we know as the present day Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Cunnigham first surveyed the area in 1871 and again visited it in between 1879-80. During his visit, the archaeologist identified several stupas and the recorded presence of ancient temples in the region in his reports.

In his records, Cunningham spoke of “a large town or city” that existed at the confluence of River Kiul, old Ganges and Harohar. The British archaeologist also cited accounts of Hiuen Tsang, the famous Chinese Buddhist monk-traveller who referred to this place as lo-in-ni-lo in his accounts. “Hwen Thsang says only a few words about lo-in-ni lo. It possessed a monastery and a stupa of Asoka… the only place which suits this special description is Rajaona, which is situated two miles to the north-west of the Lakhi-Sarai Railways station, near the junction of the River Kiul with the old Ganges and River Harohar,” Cunningham wrote.

Here, Cunningham also discovered images of Lord Buddha seated under the Bodhi tree, made of black basalt stone with inscription and an image of Bodhisattva Padmapani, a Buddhist deity also known by the name Avalokitesvara.

Apart from Cunningham, several other British explorers including J D Beglar and Buchanan explored the nearby villages of Valgudar, Rajaona, Chowki and Jaynagar, all of which falls under Lakhisarai.

However, Anil Kumar, Professor and Head of the Department of Indian History Culture and Archaeology at the Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan, argues that the exploration done by the British archaeologists primarily focused only on identifying ruins mentioned in Tsang’s account. Work done by Indian archaeologists such as D.C Sircar and R.K Choudhary, who visited the site in the 1950s and 1960s respectively, holds vital importance in figuring out important clues about the location of the city, Kumar says.

Sircar had found an inscription in Valgudar, a village near Lakhisarai, which mentioned the name Krimila Visaya (an administrative unit) of Gupta period. “Several other inscriptions of early India also mentioned Krimila as a Visaya. In this regard the Nalanda plate of Samudragupta, Bihar inscription of Gupta period, Naulagarh inscription of Pala period and two inscriptions from Valgudar and its adjacent areas are significant,” Kumar wrote in his paper titled Krimila: A forgotten Nagar of Early Medieval Eastern Inn his paper, Kumar also argued that Krimila played a role of an important political centre of early medieval eastern India during the rule of Palas, as proved by a citation in King Devapala’s Munger copper plate which mentions Krimila as a Visaya of the Sri Nagara bhukti (believed to be the Pataliputra region).

Further clues about the city’s growth and socio-religious structure appeared in another inscription deciphered by Sircar that said: That in Dharmapala’s state at Krimila Visaya Madhu Srenika (a guild of probably honey collectors) in honour of Dharmapala has founded a Devadhmmayam (a religious centre). The inscription also mentioned Krimila as an Adhisthana meaning centre of administration, a city or town.dia.

Hints of a flourishing economy were also discovered in another inscription dating the 12th century that recorded a donation made by a daughter-in law-of an oil maker for religious purposes.

Excavation work

Exploration work to unearth the lost city began in 2009. So far, an area of 72 sq km has been identified as a tentative territorial boundary of the ancient city where remains of habitation are scattered all over.

A total of 60 sites have been identified by the researchers out of which six sites–Lal Pahari, Sarsanda Hill, Ghosikundi Hill, Bicchwe Hill, Lai, Nongarh have been declared as state-protected.

Amongst the items discovered by the excavation team include a large number of finished and unfinished early medieval sculptures of Buddhist and Brahmanical Gods Such as Lord Buddha, Brahma, Parvati, Ganesh and Durga. Besides, hundreds of architectural remains, fragments of daily items used by residents and objects of ritualistic use have also been unearthed.

“In due course of the exploration, we have documented over 500 brahminical and Buddhist sculptures from all over the regions. Out of these 200 have been shifted to a temporary museum while others are currently in temples or are in private possession,” Kumar told indianexpress.com.

A specific lintel representing Buddhist deity Avalokiteshvara recovered from one of the sites in the region has also caught the eye of researchers. “The lintel is unfortunately incomplete, the right third of it having been lost, but from what has survived it can be seen to have been carved in three panels, so what is seen today are its central and left (for the viewer) panels. This sculpture was carved with the utmost care, with elements such as decorative ornamentation, jewellery, garments, or facial features carved in an exquisite and detailed manner – qualities which characterize the production of the site in the 12th century as we know it from the images previously discovered,” Claudine Bautze-Picron, an Indian art historian wrote in h“Those involved in the creation of this panel, monks and sculptors, were evidently animated by a profound impulse of the imagination and the creative mind,” Picron added.

The Lal Pahari monastery

Talks about the presence of a vihara atop the Lal Pahari were also first mentioned by Cunningham during his visit to the region. In 2015, during an accidental dig, nearby villagers discovered a bastion that led authorities to call for an urgent archaeological excavation.

In 2017, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Bihar Heritage Development Society and Visva Bharati University. On November 25, 2017, excavation began at Lal Pahari following As the systematic excavation proceeded, structural remains of a Buddhist monastery on a stone masonry foundation with several unique architectural features emerged. Discovery of the two burnt clay sealings and evidence of excessive protection measures further confirmed that the site was a vihara with a significant woman or mixed population.inauguration by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.er analysis of the discovery.

“We discovered a total of 12 bastions (3 in each corner) in the structure, perhaps used for security purposes. Several cells meant for monks were interconnected and had doors. The cells also had one elevated painted platform with an inner chamber,” Kumar told indianexpress.com

Dozens of wooden votive tablets with figures of a person, most probably Buddha sitting in Padmasana have also been recovered. “These tablets have never been found in monasteries in India before. They were only discovered in Burma and other south-east Asian countries,” he said.Hundreds of bangles made of copper and silver, neck ornaments, finger rings and nose pins were also recovered from the site during excavation.Asked about the claim of a woman monk named Vijayshree Bhadra running the monastery, Kumar said that the discovery of women’s ornaments and excessive security measures corroborates the inscriptional evidence found from this hill by Cunningham.  “The inscription depicted over an image of Singhnadavalokeshavara (a Buddist goddess) read that an elderly nun, Vijayashri Bhadra, used to receive donations from Mallika Devi, perhaps the wife of Pala ruler Sura Pala,” he added.The above-said sculpture was kept in the Berlin Museum but was taken away to Russia as “war booty” by the Russian army during the Second World War. At present, it is housed in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 2018, excavation at the Lal Pahari was briefly halted after rumours of gold coins and other valuables being found made rounds on social media triggering locals to rush to the site.

Source: Indian Express, 21/01/21

Next Bihar govt should transform administrative machinery into being responsive and people oriented

 

Lessons have to be learnt from the past, difficult decisions taken, quick-fixes avoided

Whichever party or combination forms the next government in Bihar in the next few days has to avoid some intractable mistakes being made across the country over the last three decades. Joe Biden, in his victory speech, spoke about leading not just with the example of their power, but by the power of their example. Where does Bihar stand on that parameter?

All parties are competing to roll out more and more freebies to a majority of the population — often undeserved and without a sunset. There are scant plans for long-term capital formation and employment generation. What began in the 1980s as a small measure to help the old, the poor and the infirm, has degenerated into a race to empty the treasury by doling out more and more cash into households and even offering utensils, colour TVs and gold for daughters’ weddings in some states. The focus on educating her, improving her employability and empowering her, is absent. Farm loan waivers and unemployment allowances are becoming the norm. What is the example being set?What is the power being wielded?

The next government must look at the state of the economy and its own administrative capability before committing to any major long-term populist (but unproductive) expenditure. While the last two decades in India have seen buoyancy in government receipts, the ability to splurge for the new government in Bihar is going to be seriously constrained during the next few years, mainly due to COVID-related economic shocks. Lift the hood and the statistics are stark: Bihar’s per capita net state domestic product in 2019-20 was just Rs 46,664, against the national average of Rs 1,34,226: A mere 34.7 per cent. In spite of higher yearly growth in the last 10 years, this ratio has moved only by 0.4 per cent (from 34.3 per cent to 34.7 per cent) during this period. We had a low base to start from, which makes for attractive percentages, but when it comes to even catching up with the rest of the country, it is inconceivable how many decades it would take.

While agricultural production has shown encouraging improvement, Bihar does not manufacture anything of consequence. Poverty continues to be high and unemployment much above the national average. The manufacturing sector’s contribution to Bihar’s economy is just 8.7 per cent of the national average. Data for 2017-18 shows that a mere 1.5 per cent of the nation’s factories are registered in Bihar; the needle on fixed capital formation has remained static on 0.6 per cent for over a decade. FDI in the state in 2019-20 was a mere 0.01 per cent of the national average, and Bihar’s rank in ease of doing business was 26 in 2019. Entrepreneurship seems to be systematically discouraged in the state. Bihar is the only major state in the country from where not a single company was trading on the BSE or NSE in 2017. Private equity or venture fund investments in the state are nearly nil.

Bihar continues to be the Gangotri supplying unskilled labour to the rest of India. It is a sad refrain that still rings true — a Bihari must leave Bihar to make it. Highly educated and accomplished Biharis are making significant contributions in different parts of the world in IT, finance, medicine and engineering. A young person, Amanullah, recently started a small initiative of creating an alumni group of the once prestigious Patna Science College. Hundreds of Biharis from across the world offered to help out. The next government needs to create conditions to tap this resource to initiate a reverse brain-drain.But a look at the manifestos in this election paints a disappointing picture. The BJP has promised to create conditions for 19 lakh jobs — 4 lakh directly in government — and provide free COVID vaccines for all. The RJD has promised 10 lakh direct jobs in the government, loan waiver for farmers and unemployment allowance to the youth. The Congress and JD(U) have promised unemployment allowance and farm loan waiver. The LJP has promised to construct a Sita temple, among other things. Is that the best we can do for the people of Bihar? Temples, loan waivers and unemployment benefits? Is this the future Biharis are clamouring for?

Besides the obvious worry (who pays for this), a key concern is the state’s capacity to even execute these promises. While lakhs of jobs in the government have been promised, the fact is that for decades, no major recruitment has taken place in the state without controversies around nepotism, mismanagement and corruption. It is not uncommon for candidates waiting for results to be announced even three or four years after their recruitment tests. Officials of the agencies conducting recruitment have landed in jails and endless litigation has taken years to resolve — often reaching the Supreme Court.

Our exaggerated faith in DBT is getting exposed in scandals in schemes like distribution of scholarships and mid-day meals. The new government will have to internalise that while technology can be a great enabler, it can only go thus far. For a state once proud of its administrative machinery, today the population faces harassment, lack of accountability and sensitivity. The core tenets of command, supervision and grievance redressal appear to have broken down. Higher levels of administrative supervision and accountability at all levels have to be ensured before any big ticket expenditure programmes are launched.The next government must tackle head-on the reluctance amongst all the political parties to grapple with fundamental issues of economic stagnation, lack of employment opportunities, absence of private investment and administrative decline. The solutions will require deep structural changes, often difficult and unpopular.

It will not bring immediate results and will require support from all sections of society. The confrontational social and political sentiments generated during the election will have to make way for an effort to build consensus for an economic revival. My call to the next government is to work towards transforming the administrative machinery into being responsive, sensitive and people oriented. Its task is to create an environment for private investment, improve productivity and value addition in agriculture, education, healthcare and industry. It has to lead by example. It is incumbent upon it to do so.

This article first appeared in the print edition on November 10, 2020 under the title ‘Government Bihar needs’. The writer is former chairperson of SEBI

Source: Indian Express, 10/11/20

In Bihar, is class transcending caste?

 

The issues are centred on poverty and suffering, of the need for local opportunities, and of the failures of the state to stand by its poor in their hour of need

For students of political change, the Bihar assembly elections are of great significance. The world’s poorest go to vote in the world’s largest democracy, in the first direct elections of this scale after the Covid-19 pandemic has engulfed the world. Under the formal veneer of campaigning, marked by political rallies and speeches, is a truly substantive and deep political deliberation in Bihar’s villages and towns, with labour primarily re-centering the electoral discourse towards aspects of life and livelihood in unanticipated ways. Labour and its desire for voice and visibility in Bihar signals a shift in the base, and indicates a reshaping of the political arena, following a long period of political continuity and bureaucratic-charismatic leadership in the name of development and welfare.

The change has been truly unanticipated and sudden for a polity hitherto characterised by the caste-based politics of agada-pichada (forward-backward), where Lalu Prasad’s Mandalisation engulfed even the sharpest tenors of Left politics rooted among agrarian labour; and where Chief Minister (CM) Nitish Kumar’s plank of good governance was firmly rooted in a social base of the ati-pichada — the extremely backward classes conglomerate referred to as a cluster of panch-phorana jatis. This contextual rootedness, Kumar’s background as being one among the Jayaprakash Narayan-Karpoori Thakur-inspired socialists, and his personal clean image was embedded in his governance model — it is this that is the central object of questioning in these state elections.

The pursuit of good governance earned Kumar the sobriquet of sushaasan babu and dominated the administrative directions of many states after liberalisation. But he was not alone.

Since the late 1990s, many CMs began to be seen as leading the agenda of vikas (development), and emerging as the chehra (face) associated with delivery of public services and welfare. Chandrababu Naidu was among the earliest such leaders. A favourite of the World Bank and global business, he was referred to as the CEO in the arena of democracy. In northern India — more rural and agrarian — Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s pro-women welfare schemes such as Laadli Lakshmi earned him the title of Mama.

It was Kumar, however, who transformed the landscape north of the Vindhyas in Bihar by merging Mandalised electoral politics with the provision of universal basic services — roads, law and order and schools in his first term, and electricity in his second. Pro-poor and clean management of floods in large areas of Purnea and Saharsa, bordering Nepal and honest efforts at flood-relief earned him the trust of the most vulnerable.

Both the extreme backwards and the Mahadalits put their trust in the Nitish Kumar-led political regime for close to two decades. But they are, today, at the forefront of the silent-but-deep questioning on the ground — this is particularly true of labour, which is seeking to find its voice after having had to flee urban centres during the lockdown.

During conversations in Saran district’s oldest nagar panchayat of Riwilganj, many stories emerged of the hardships faced by labourers as they struggled to return home, many from those who belong to social groups traditionally considered loyal to Nitish Kumar.

There is a high density of population in the region, and no source of local work, leading to palaayan, exodus/migration, said Bhagwan Ji Sharma, a badhai by caste. “We left our soch (thinking) based on jaat-paat and organised round-the-clock meal services for labourers walking back. There was one who was returning from Tamil Nadu who had walked hundreds of kilometres and taken rides on trucks. His feet were in tatters.”

But the resentment is not merely that labourers had to struggle, but that there was political apathy. “Nitishji did not speak up for us, even a Yogi Adityanath organised buses for travel of labour from Uttar Pradesh”, said Dhurinder Manjhi. Ranju, a young Sahni woman from Darbhanga district, was stuck with three children at a Delhi construction site, and barely survived the threats of the building contractor. A labour contractor from Barauni helped her survive and get back, not the administration. Back in her village, Ranju can only rely on her skills of makhana farming in water puddles owned by landlords — she does not own any land.

The refrain is similar in Begusarai. Labourers want to go back to the opportunities available in flourishing sites of neoliberal economic development. But trains are limited. The bus operators charge ₹3,000 for a road journey to Delhi. “At least Nitish Kumar could have helped labour go back by train. There is no fear of the coronavirus in holding election rallies, but when it comes to us, our freedom is curtailed,” argued a group of young men from the Kushwaha community who have studied in public universities in Patna.

In each field site, the discussions transcend caste identities, and even partisan affiliations. The issues are centred on poverty and suffering, of the need for local opportunities, and of the failures of the state to stand by its poor in their hour of need. Unfortunately, generating economic opportunities locally was just not a priority of the sushaasan agenda.

Manisha Priyam is associate professor, National University for Educational

Planning and Administration

The views expressed are personal

Source: Hindustan Times, 5/11/20