All Of UP Declared Covid-Affected; Haridwar ‘Saints’ Vow to ‘Eliminate Islam’
Bank frauds worth over Rs 36,000 crore in six months, and in Ram Rajya UP, Akhilesh promises compensation for victims of bulls, takhallus ‘Allahabadi’ renamed ‘Prayagraji’ and the wrong P. Jain raided
A newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas | Contributors: MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, Sushant Singh and Tanweer Alam | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal
Snapshot of the day
December 29, 2021
Pratik Kanjilal
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A UP government proclamation has declared that the entire state is affected by Covid-19. However, the BJP’s campaigning continues regardless.
According to the RBI, there were 4,071 banking frauds in April-September, involving Rs 36,342 crore. Private sector banks reported more than half of the cases but in terms of value, the share of PSBs was higher, indicating the predominance of high-value fraud.
In 2021, the growth in the proportion of households reporting an improvement in incomes has not translated into a proportionate increase in households reporting an inclination to buy consumer durables. CMIE data shows that December is likely to register a fall in consumer sentiment compared to November. This would be the first month to record a fall since June.
For the BJP government, 2021 was no different from its other years in power, as it continued its spree of arresting activists and journalists who do not agree with its politics, and accused them of inciting violence and of criminal conspiracy against the state. From Disha Ravi to Khurram Parwez, here’s the NewsMinute’s list of activists and journalists arrested in 2021.
Even by the renaming-obsessed BJP government in UP, this change seemed a step too far. On Tuesday, it was noticed that the website of the UP Higher Education Services Commission had written the names of Akbar Allahabadi, Rashid Allahabadi and Tegh Allahabadi as Akbar Prayagraji, Rashid Prayagraji and Tegh Prayagraji. On Wednesday, the commission said its website had been “hacked by people unhappy with Allahabads new name” and that the poets original names would be restored.
From Madhya Pradesh, visuals of BJP MP Guman Singh Damore, who is facing charges for alleged involvement in a Rs 600 crore scam, evading media queries are quite unseemly. A court in Alirajpur has called for a case to be registered against the MP. Rewa BJP MP Janardan Mishra has said that he should be approached with complaints of corruption only if the amount involved is more than Rs 15 lakh. Because a sarpanch needs Rs 7 lakh to win an election, and another Rs 7 lakh for the next one. “Add another Rs 1 lakh keeping in mind inflation, and that becomes Rs 15 lakh.” And the Andhra BJP president is promising cheap liquor.
Newslaundry reports on how Loni in Ghaziabad, UP, has become a laboratory for Hindutva politics. From denying licences to meat traders to ‘vigilantes’ aiding the police, BJP MLA Nand Kishor Gurjar is playing centre-forward.
Modi had asked everyone to mask up during his television address on the 25th, but the law-giver himself is exempt. Evidence from Kanpur.
The campaign isn’t smelling good, either:
After former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi sounded off against Brahmins, the BJP advised him to chant “Ram Ram”, and unintended consequences followed. His Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular threatened to pull out of the National Democratic Alliance and topple the Bihar government. “The NDA government in Bihar will fall if our four MLAs withdraw support. The BJP ministers and leaders will be left on the road fending for themselves and chanting the name of Lord Ram,” HAMS spokesperson Danish Rizwan said. “These BJP ministers should understand that they are in power due to the support and mercy of Manjhi-ji. Nobody will recognise them if we pull out.”
Almost a month after Pakistan said it would allow transportation of humanitarian aid for Taliban-run Afghanistan via the Wagah crossing, New Delhi has not been able to ship any wheat as Islamabad has not finalised modalities. Pakistan told the Indian side that the entire consignment of 50,000 tonnes should be transported within December, which is impossible since too few Afghan trucks come daily to Wagah. India sent 1.6 tonnes of life-saving medicines to Afghanistan on a special charter flight to Kabul on December 11. The flight brought 104 people, most of them Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, from Kabul to New Delhi, and returned with 85 Afghan nationals who were stranded in India following the Taliban takeover.
The Adani Group’s Carmichael coal mine in Australia will begin exporting, almost entirely to India, where 70% of power generation is still coal-fired. The project has provoked mass opposition in Australia and globally since it began in 2010.
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