“Tipu Sultan was extremely cruel. He killed non-Muslims in large numbers who did not convert. Various Islamic invaders committed such killings in large numbers. But today’s Muslims are not responsible for any of these misdeeds. So, how long will we continue to hide the facts based on arguments that one community’s sentiments will get hurt? Shall we celebrate the Birth Anniversary of a person like Tipu Sultan by washing away all his cruelty and misdeeds? Is the politics of appeasement of a particular community is making individuals like Tipu Sultan a deliberate icon”, Sampath posed questions during this interview.

“15 years ago my property was burnt after an article written by me on Tipu Sultan appeared in a newspaper. Threatening letters were also given to my parents. After that my mother made me swear that I would not talk about Tipu Sultan in public. A few years ago my mother passed away so I got free from this oath and decided to complete my book on Tipu Sultan. I had a long wait to do this for about 15 years and because of that the book has become a bit bigger at about 900 pages”, said Sampath.

Amit Paranjpe spoke to Vikram Sampat on various issues such as the relationship between the Maratha and Mysore Empires, the end of Tipu Sultan, his father Hyder Ali and his tales of cruelty, and the use of rockets by Hyder Ali and Tipu in the war.

Speaking on the occasion, Vijay Gokhale said, “History, like science, comes to conclusions by studying various tools and evidence like archeology, numismatics, ancient languages and manuscripts, art and architecture. History is not limited only to kings and their royal families, and their battles but it helps us to understand the social structure, culture, and moral values of that time. Today, when other countries are trying to impose their values on us it is important to know our roots so the knowledge of history and our culture is of paramount importance.”  

Manoj Pochat, coordinator of Pune Samvad gave the welcome remarks and Durgesh played the role of an anchor for the event.

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Sharad Pawar’s political journey, which began in 1958 with the Youth Congress is a tale of remarkable agility.  By 1962, just four years later, he had climbed the ranks to become the Pune district Youth Congress president. His first electoral victory came in 1967 when he won the Assembly election from his home turf, Baramati, a constituency that has remained his bastion ever since. Whether in the state legislature or Parliament, Pawar has been a permanent fixture in Indian politics for decades.

In 1978, at the age of 38, he achieved a significant milestone—becoming the youngest Chief Minister of Maharashtra. But this was no ordinary ascent. The very Congress party that had nurtured his early career was soon to be betrayed when Pawar turned back from  Chief Minister Vasantdada Patil, leading to the fall of the government.  He didn’t hesitate to gather a coalition of leftists, socialists, communists, and the Janata Party and rebels to crown himself the Chief Minister. It marked the beginning of his unparalleled career in political maneuvering, and his journey of opportunistic alliances, ideological flexibility, and relentless power-seeking.

In 1985, Pawar decided to lead the BJP-supported Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) against Congress. It was a brilliant move for turning enemies into friends. By 1986, Pawar had perfected his game. Publicly, he declared that he would rather go from ashes to the Himalayas than rejoin Congress. Whereas privately, he was making deals with Rajiv Gandhi and re-entered Congress with a grin, leaving his loyalists bewildered. In 1999, Pawar’s “candid critic” of Sonia Gandhi’s “foreign origins,” once again displayed a mass show of his “loyalty,”  leading him to break away from Congress and form the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). However, Pawar made a U-turn and forged alliance with Congress within months to secure support in Maharashtra and later in 2004, he eagerly aligned with the party to share power at the Centre.

Pawar’s pièce de résistance came in 2014. With the Maharashtra Assembly elections looming, he did what he does best: he withdrew support from Congress, once again delivering a stinging slap to the Chief Minister. But no Sharad Pawar story would be complete without the grand finale of 2019. The electorate pushed the ‘national party’ to third place in Maharashtra. Undeterred from his earlier statement of never allying with the narrow-minded, Hindutva-oriented, communalShiv Sena, naturally, within weeks, he joined hands with them, catapulting himself into power yet again. His ability to pivot from one ideology to another is awe-inspiring—if only flexibility were an Olympic event!

Sharad Pawar, the seasoned strategist of Indian politics, might have finally gotten a taste of his own medicine on July 2, 2023, when his nephew, Ajit Pawar, crossed over to the BJP camp. In a dramatic twist, Ajit was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, taking eight other NCP members with him. This move dealt a significant blow to the man hailed as the “Chanakya of Indian Politics,” as Ajit Pawar not only claimed control of the “real NCP” but also took away the party’s iconic ‘clock’ symbol.

Since then, the future of the NCP in Maharashtra politics has been anything but stable, with new twists and turns emerging almost daily. With the next Assembly elections around the corner, all eyes are now on the 83-year-old Sharad Pawar. Can he pull off yet another political masterstroke, or will this be the end of his legendary acrobatics?

After all, Pawar is the man who has made betrayal a strategy and turned hypocrisy into an art form. His political game is simple: there’s only one rule, and that is to win. As the countdown to the elections begins, Maharashtra waits to see what his next move will be.

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Prof. Sunil Khilnani further added, “There’s a tendency to exaggerate the distance between ‘us’ the good democrats and others. Major democracies have covertly been doing undemocratic things. Autocratic oppression and democratic liberties co-exist closely together.”

Speaking in the session, “The Idea of India: Understanding the Many Incarnations” Prof. Sunil Khilnani took the audience on a journey through time, navigating the complex interplay of cultures, ideologies, and socio-political dynamics that shaped democracy in the subcontinent.

Bringing to fore diverse ideas that have shaped the Indian democracy, Prof Khilnani remarked, “The state doesn’t define our Indian-ness. Unlike the West, we uniquely defined that the people have the right to define their Indian-ness. This is something we should not under-estimate and that we should preserve. Politics is still defining us. The Idea of India is that it allows space for different definitions. Democracy gives us a space to integrate minds.” 

He further added, “Democracy isn’t ridiculously hard to establish it is more difficult to keep. For most of human history, power has been with the monopoly. As citizens we need to be more vigilant to what democratic governments are doing and whether their practices are actually serving the people.”

Commenting about the importance of electoral process, Prof. Khilnani observed, “We seem to have over emphasized the importance of electoral process. The winning of power gives sanction to use of power in different ways. It is the other institutions, which are critical to keep democracy alive.”

On being asked, how he would have rewritten his book ‘Idea of India’ today, Prof. Khilnani remarked,  “I underestimated the sheer dynamism of the Indian economy and the way it has burst into life. Also, it takes two to make democracy work. I would have to delve into knowing where the opposition is now.”

The ABP Network’s ‘Ideas of India’ Summit 3.0 spotlighting the ‘The People’s Agenda’ brought a confluence of ideas and ideators to a common platform celebrating the country’s people and its plurality. The two-day summit hosted policymakers, cultural ambassadors, industry experts, celebrities, business leaders, economists, and leading luminaries to delve into the fundamental ideas of liberty, justice, equality, and diversity that define India, its society, culture, and politics. The meaningful deliberations on diverse topics had the brightest minds across sectors providing insights about the nation’s trajectory and its journey to become Viksit Bharat.

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The festival was organized by Sahil Deo and was supported by the Parimal and Pramod Chaudhari Foundation. The first edition of the festival received a warm response from the students and entrepreneurs. Ajit Rande, VC, Gokhale Institute, Indranil Chitale, Siddharth Desai, and Rugwed Deshpande were present for the concluding ceremony.

In his speech, Puri said, “The cumulative spent on urban space by the central government was about 1,57,000 Cr between 2004 and 2014. After 2014, we realized the challenges in urbanization and we saw an opportunity in it.  Thus, the current government has increased it by 11 times and today we are spending about 18 Lac Cr for this purpose. This expenditure was necessary because 65% of India’s GDP comes from the urban population. Now, we do have a trade-off. Simplistically putting it, Can we make one choice between growth or being environmentally conscious? The answer is we have to do both. This is why the Prime Minister declared the entire year as the Global Housing Technology Challenge Year.

“Under this initiative, we invited all universities and companies to come to India to demonstrate green technologies. Out of these, we shortlisted 53 technologies which became the operating Bible. From these 6 more technologies were shortlisted for 6 lighthouse projects, that is  6 projects of 1000 residential units each in one year using the most green technology. 4 Cr houses are being made under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana of which 1.9 Cr are in urban spaces“

“Buildings and transport cause pollution. Today we have a position where over 60 million people go to Petrol Pumps to fill up fuel. India’s rate of growth in fuel demand is 3 times more than the global average. In the next 20 years,  25% of the increase in global demand is going to come from India. So to deal with this situation we are addressing the trilemma of availability, affordability, and sustainability. Our ENP (Exploration and Production) is increasing. We have a 3.5 million square kilometer sedimentary basin. We opened up 1 million sedimentary basins which were no-go areas. We opened it up to exploration. Now we have gone from production sharing to revenue sharing contracts with oil exploration companies. We have also gone to the extent of incentivizing the finance for exploration. Currently, 87% of fuels are imported of which roughly 45% is crude and 45 % is natural gas“, Puri informed.

He appraised the gathering about the positive sentiment at the recent summit held at Davos where the world is looking at the growth potential of India. He said that there is a lot of buzz about the Global Biodule Alliance about the scaling up of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel since the European Governments are going to make it compulsory. Three years before we were discussing about 1 car could be an electric one in 25 cars. Today we are talking about 1 car as electric in 5 cars. So, the world is changing to alternate fuel. Now, we have achieved 12% ethanol blending from a mere 1.4 % in 2014. The target now is 20% by 2025. This blending not only saved an import bill of 41000 Cr but also helped us to pay the farmers over 42000 Cr from the production of ethanol. Second-generation biofuels are now being made from agricultural waste so the issue of food security gets answered effectively.

The minister informed that the Government is looking at 1% blending in Sustainable Aviation Fuel by 2027, 3% by 2028, and 5% by 2029. This will lead to more need and production of ethanol. The requirement even at 1% blending will be 14 thousand Cr liters of biofuel. According to him, Green Hydrogen Fuel can be a success in India. He concluded by saying as per the report of a foreign agency urban spaces in India are increasing at a rapid rate and thus we see a huge construction activity happening in the country. So, the country will take energy and urbanization with a focus on finding a sustainable cost-efficient way.

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She delivered a keynote address on ‘Catalysing Impactful Governance Though Evidence-Based Policy Making’ and touched upon aspects that affect the economy like pension schemes, extended maternity leave, skilling, and employment. After her keynote address Dr Ajit Ranade, VC, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics interacted with her on certain topics. Indranil Chitale presented the opening remarks and briefed the gathering about the thought behind organizing PPPF.

“While considering the cost of any welfare scheme apart from the actual accounting cost, its economic cost should also be considered. MNREGA is a good scheme and its usefulness came to light again during the pandemic. Though welfare schemes are meant for the benefit of poor people at large, we must check if we are in a position to afford them. A big chunk of the Government’s budget goes into taking up the interest cost and for making salaries and pension payments. Reforms brought in the pension scheme in 2003 made some funds available for developmental work. So, going back to the old pension scheme as demanded by some sections and backed by some political parties is not feasible“, said Shamika Ravi.

“Extension of the paid maternity leave has some positive side. However, the fact is that it has lowered the percentage of women in the workforce. As a result of this policy, SMEs are preferring to employ more male employees. Though every state has a policy, the progress made by each state is different and the factor of Governance plays a key role there. There was a time when Punjab’s GDP was the highest which declined due to heavy deindustrialization. Thus, questions like how the new jobs will come in the future need to be answered, she added. 

Shamika Ravi stated that while facing the government job psychology we must understand that the private sector has a huge potential to create new jobs. The current findings indicate that unemployment is higher in the highly educated section of youngsters as compared to the ones that are not so highly educated. This is primarily because of the gap between the skills required by the industry and the perception of the right job amongst the highly educated youth. In India, unemployment is as high as 34.8% among the youth who possess graduate and above degrees. She advised the students of economics to study the open source data and use it in research.

After the inaugural session a panel discussion on Reimagining Urban Transformation – The Trade-off between Environment and Development. PCMC Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh, PWC India’s partner Shardul Phadnavis, Greater Mumbai’s Additional Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, Bandu Dhotre, and Ambika Vishwanath participated in this panel discussion.

Photo caption – Dr Ajit Ranade, VC Gokhale Institute interacted with Shamika Ravi during the inaugural session of the Pune Public Policy Festival at Gokhale Institute.

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PUNE: Middle-class citizens prefer to stay away from politics and politicians. However, they don’t realize that their entire life is somewhere connected to politics and politicians from the time they wake up in the morning to the time they sleep. MNS Chief Raj Thackeray asserted that if change is to be made, middle-class citizens do not even need to contest elections, but they should pay the required attention to politics rather than ignoring it.

Thackeray was speaking at a program organized by the Indian Institute of Architects, Pune Center to celebrate World Teachers’ Day and World-Architects Day at Annabhau Sathe Auditorium on Satara Road. On this occasion, three senior architects, Vikas Bhandari, Vishwas Kulkarni, and Shobha Bhopatkar, who have been working in the field of architecture for more than 50 years were presented with the IIA S. K. Belwalkar Award for Excellence in Profession at the hands of Raj Thackeray. The award was in the form of a certificate and a badge of honor.

National President of Indian Institute of Architects Vilas Avachat, Joint Secretary Sandeep Bavdekar, President of Pune Center of Indian Institute of Architects Vikas Achalkar, Vice President Sitesh Aggarwal and other dignitaries were present on the dais. The best teachers of 22 architecture colleges in the Pune division were awarded with IIA S. J. Contracts Award for Excellence in Teaching on this occasion. Subsequently, Deepak Karanjikar, Vikas Achalkar, and Sitesh Aggarwal interacted with Raj Thackeray on various topics related to architecture, urban planning, and so on.

Speaking on the occasion, Raj Thackeray said, “The middle class was the link between the poor and the rich. After 1995 India became part of the world economy. The middle class could predict what might happen and took the opportunity that was created. While everyone’s life has sped up due to internet facilities and other things, the grip of the middle class has loosened. Now the middle class should pay attention to politics since it affects their everyday life.“

There is a need today to use the aesthetic vision of architects to work on urbanization. Thackeray said, “I will try my best to put the ideas of architects to good use when they come to me with their concepts and ideas in the near future.“

Thackeray further said, “How to handle rapid urbanization, how to beautify the cities, what needs to be done for it, whom should we tell this? Today, we do not know the answers. Elections of all municipal corporations have been on hold for a long time. If those who are in power possess the aesthetic sense then it will reflect in their work too. The focus is on development planning and not the proper urban or town planning. Today, engineers are given much more importance than architects. We must understand that just building the roads is not enough, we also need to consider, plan develop, and create allied facilities.”  

Stating that it is unfortunate that the time has come to tell the importance of cleanliness in Maharashtra, where Saint Gadge Baba was born, Raj Thackeray further said, “Mumbai took time to come to the condition  that it is today but the situation in Pune may worsen much faster.” Today there are five Punes in this city. Hinjewadi Pune is different, Kharadi and Riverside Pune are different, and so on. No politician is paying attention to the needs of fast-growing Pune.”

If the power of the state comes into my hands, I will get all the architects to plan the cities. Only if cities are planned properly, beautiful cities will be built. Thackeray also emphasized that city planning is not rocket science.

Today, FSI has become popular in Pune city. There is a situation where the builders are increasing the FSI by paying the fee to the municipal corporation. According to the population, Pune should have 15% roads, today this figure is only 7-8%. Thackeray also remarked that one day a Punekar would leave home and be stuck there in traffic for a long. If politicians want to be taught a lesson, they should be given the answer from the ballot box only then will they realize their mistake. However, surprisingly, nothing like this is happening, Raj Thackeray felt.

Vilas Awachat expressed optimism that an architect is a holistic and reformist, so he will definitely think about how to improve the city while contributing to the environment. Vikas Achalkar pointed out that today’s program bringing together the heads, teachers, and students of 22 architecture colleges of Pune division is the only program in the history of IIA Pune and our entire team has put in a lot of effort for this. The program was followed by an entertainment program by Sarang Sathye, founder of Bhadipa and stand-up comedian.

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