Bollywood barometer

Sitaram yechury is worried that India’s sovereignty is at stake in Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary. Rather than listen to political commentators, who in the wake of team India’s historic Twenty-20 win suggest that new India’s icons are far removed from anti-imperialism, we should take a cue from Hindi cinema about the mood of the youth, writes Yechury. And, he points out that in the first six years of this decade, six mainstream successful films were released about Bhagat Singh. “This is the reaction of the overwhelmingly youthful population of India,” he writes, “however, in their effort to erase the impact of the finest traditions and legacy of revolutionary struggles that shaped the contours of modern independent India, pundits of liberalisation spare no opportunity or effort to facilitate the transformation of modern India into a subordinate ally of world imperialism today.”