Assam CM Denies Wife Got Government Subsidy But Congress Posts Proof From Ministry Site; The Widening, Tightening Embrace of Shah Rukh

Discrimination against Manipur tribals, 90 infra projects near LAC, Indians don’t read the news, they watch it, seaweed wave coming, why fascists make lousy poets, UK cinema drops epic Jawan spoiler

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia and Tanweer Alam | With inputs from Kalrav Joshi and Anirudh SK | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal

---

Snapshot of the day

September 13, 2023

Pratik Kanjilal

The government has called a meeting of the floor leaders of all parties on September 17, the day before a special five-day session of Parliament, whose agenda remains a mystery shrouded in a secret, a sharp departure from parliamentary tradition. 

The Nipah virus is back in Kerala, where two deaths have been recorded in Kozhikode district. Four more cases are under surveillance. Previously, deaths due to Nipah were reported in Kozhikode district in 2018 and 2021. The virus is not a novelty in Kerala, which has contained its spread effectively. 

To the Indian Express, German Ambassador to India Philipp Ackermann revealed the secret ingredients of the G20 Delhi Declaration: “Russia didn’t want the word ‘war’, Ukraine wanted ‘war against Ukraine’ and Germany wanted ‘territorial integrity’ in the declaration. In the final declaration, the word ‘war’ was used, but it was used as ‘war in Ukraine’ and not war against Ukraine, and ‘territorial integrity’ too found mention.” To The Hindu, Ackermann confirmed that a summit without a common declaration would have scuppered the G20.

India’s retail inflation dipped slightly in August to 6.83% from 7.4% in July, but remains above the tolerance band of between 2-6%. Consumer food inflation has been high at 9.92%. Inflation is expected to remain elevated due to a weak monsoon, depleting reservoirs and rising crude prices, says Reuters. “Upward pressure on food inflation persists with nearly 60% of the food and beverages subcomponents by weight seeing 6% plus inflation in August,” said Gaura Sen Gupta, economist at IDFC First Bank Economics Research.

The National Investigation Agency has identified 15 of the protesters who were involved in the March 19 attack on the Indian High Commission in London, in which the national flag was brought down. However, the UK has no law which can be applied to protesters, like our handy UAPA, and the challenge is to get it to move legally. The NIA has also identified four Khalistan supporters who targeted the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on July 2, and a team will visit Canada to identify the attackers of Indian diplomatic properties there.

Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu has been granted temporary relief by the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which stayed trial proceedings against him in the alleged skill development scam till Monday (September 18). The CID will have to wait until then to take him into custody. The court will resume hearing Naidu’s petition to quash the cases against him on Tuesday.

Demand for work under MGNREGA is rising again, with flagging employment in urban areas. About 171 million sought work under the scheme in April-August, 19% higher than 144 million in the corresponding period of 2019-20, before the pandemic. According to CMIE data, the rural unemployment rate in July declined to 7.89% from 8.73% in June, while urban unemployment rose to 8.06% from 7.87% in the same period.

In Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, the NGO MGNREGA Watch says that 25,000 workers haven’t been paid their wages, some of them for five months. The Hindu reports that they are forced to borrow from loan sharks and are in penury. Local officials blamed delays in the Union government.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has inaugurated 90 border infrastructure projects across the Himalayas, from Tawang to Ladakh, in which Rs 2,900 crore will be invested. The 64 projects in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Sikkim are intended to speed up troop movements to the Line of Actual Control. At present, infrastructure on the Chinese side is far superior.

The Caravan reports more incidents in Manipur where the police have given free rein to arsonists of the majority community, and allowed attacks on minority villages with