Deloitte Punches Holes in Adani Ports Deals, Citing Lack of Review; Manipur DGP Not Allowed to Handle Operations Because He Is a Kuki

Rajan busts mobile export boom myth, Rahul says BJP controls all tools of politics, Vedanta chip project fails govt test, blow to Delhi police image, new parliament resembles old Somali one

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

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Snapshot of the day

May 31, 2023

Vinay Pandey

Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, the auditor of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, has raised concerns over the company’s transactions with three entities, which the company said were unrelated parties. But the auditor said it couldn’t confirm that the parties were indeed unrelated, and that the firm has refused to get an independent external examination which would help prove so. It, therefore, signed off on the company’s books only with what’s called a “qualified opinion”, Bloomberg reported. 

Noting that “the evaluation performed by Adani Group does not constitute sufficient appropriate audit evidence for the purpose of the audit”, Deloitte said it can’t comment if the company was fully compliant with local laws. This is the first time a top auditor has issued a qualified opinion on part of Adani Group’s books citing allegations from the report of US short seller Hindenburg Research. The move will renew concerns that information gaps persist in Adani’s financial dealings, and risks hampering its attempts to move past Hindenburg’s allegations of extensive corporate fraud, the news agency said.

The protesting wrestlers who had gone to Haridwar on Tuesday returned without throwing their medals into the Ganga after the intervention of Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Naresh Tikait. The medals were also handed over to Tikait, who had reached Haridwar to persuade the wrestlers from immersing their medals in the river. He gave a five-day ultimatum to the government to act on the demands of the wrestlers who are protesting the alleged sexual harassment of seven of them, including a minor, by Wrestling Federation of India chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. 

Meenakshi Lekhi, minister of state for external affairs, displayed her sprinting skills on Tuesday when a reporter sought her comments on the wrestler’s protest. 

United World Wrestling, the international governing body for amateur wrestling which oversees the sport at the Olympics, condemned the May 28 police action against the wrestlers, adding that it was disappointed “over the lack of results of the investigations so far”. It threatened to suspend WFI if the federation failed to conduct its elections within the stipulated 45 days. On April 27, a two-member ad hoc committee was formed on the orders of the sports ministry to run the day-to-day affairs of WFI and also conduct the elections. It has been 33 days since, leaving the body with just 12 days to hold the polls. 

The International Olympic Committee, too, stepped in on Tuesday. Calling the treatment meted out to the wrestlers “very disturbing”, the IOC asked for an “unbiased, criminal investigation” into the allegations of sexual harassment and underlined: “We urge that the safety and wellbeing of these athletes is duly considered throughout this process and that this investigation will be speedily concluded.” 

The Delhi high court on Tuesday sought responses from the Delhi government and the registrar general of the high court on a plea seeking a court-monitored probe against the WFI chief. The plea has been filed by the minor wrestler. 

Former Supreme Court judges have said the Delhi police’s action against the wrestlers was vindictive.

Meanwhile, BJP legislators in UP’s Gonda, Bahraich, Balrampur and Shravasti districts, where Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is quite influential, are coming out in his support and helping him mobilise crowds for a mega rally he is planning to organise in Ayodhya on June 5. At the rally, he is set to demand amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against him. Prominent sadhus of Ayodhya, too, have backed his demand and are expected to participate in the rally.

Source: @CartoonistSan/Twitter

Rajiv Singh, a Tripura-cadre IPS officer, posted as inspector general of the CRPF, was on Monday moved to the Manipur cadre as a “special case in public interest”, the Hindustan Times reported. The Manipur police’s operational command is currently being handled by Ashutosh Sinha, an ADG. P Doungel, the DGP of Manipur, does not have operational control over the police force of the state that has been in the grip of ethnic violence for nearly a month. Neither does his immediate deputy C Doungel, who happens to be his brother. The Doungels have been kept out of operations because they are Kukis, a state police officer told the newspaper on the condition of anonymity.

Imposition of President’s rule in Manipur and creation of a separate administration for tribals were among the key demands from tribal leaders who met Union home minister Amit Shah in Churachandpur district on Tuesday, the Indian Express reported, quoting unidentified sources. Shah is learnt to have assured them that the demands would be considered, but asked the Kuki leaders to ensure peace for at least a fortnight so that normalcy could return and the talks could be taken forward. Shah also assured an independent probe into the violence by a central agency or judicial committee.

Thirteen top Manipur athletes have threatened to return their medals and awards if peace is not restored in the state soon. In a memorandum submitted to Shah in Imphal on Tuesday, they also sought stern action against the extremist groups behind the violence. The signatories to the memorandum included Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu, weightlifter Kunjarani Devi, former Indian women’s football team captain Oinam Bem Bem Devi, boxer L Sarita Devi, Olympian judoka Likmabam Shushila Devi and boxer L Ibomcha Singh.

The National Investigation Agency simultaneously raided 16 places in Dakshina Kannada region of Karnataka on Wednesday in connection with ongoing investigation into terror funding. Houses, offices and hospitals were searched in Mangaluru as well as Puttur, Beltangady, Uppinangady, Venur and Bantwal, the Hindu reported. The properties allegedly belong to activists of the banned Popular Front of India. 

India’s smartphone exports surpassed an impressive $10 billion (₹85,000 crore) in 2022-23, but former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has raised concerns about this export boom, cautioning that the growth is primarily driven by assembly rather than genuine manufacturing within the country. He said the reason behind this could be the deficiency in the flagship Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme that the subsidy is paid only for finishing the phone in India, not on how much value is added by manufacturing in India. India still imports much of what goes into the phone, and “when we correct for that, it is very hard to maintain that net exports have gone up”. Indeed, once import data for smartphone components like semiconductors, PCBAs, displays, li-ion batteries, battery chargers and cameras is factored in, India remains a de facto net importer of smartphones.

Rahul Gandhi says the RSS and the BJP are controlling all the instruments of politics in India. Addressing a gathering of the Indian diaspora in Santa Clara, California, the Congress leader said that before kicking off their “Bharat Jodo Yatra”, he and his team realised that the normal tools that have historically been used in politics were not working any more. Stressing that the world is too big, too complicated for any one person to think that he understands everything and knows everything, he said: “We have a group of people in India who are absolutely convinced that they know everything. In fact, I think maybe they think they even know more than god. … our prime minister is one such specimen. I think if you sat Modiji down next to god, Modiji would start explaining to god how the universe works. And god would get confused, what have I created.” The BJP retort came from Information and Broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur: “Several world leaders say Modi is the most popular leader. When the Australian PM said 'PM Modi is the Boss', Rahul Gandhi could not digest this,” he said.

The desire for “Khalistan” and a “separate Sikh nation”, which were mentioned in the context of the Anandpur Sahib resolution, have been dropped from the Class XII political science textbook of the NCERT, the Union ministry of education announced on Tuesday. The changes were made after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) objected to the references. The decision to remove the references was taken by an expert committee of the NCERT to prevent possibilities of reading them out of context, the ministry said.

After crude oil, another significant Russian resource, coking coal – the primary raw material in steelmaking – is expected to more than quadruple in 2023-24. The leading importers are the state-owned SAIL and private steelmakers JSW Steel and Jindal Steel.

The Modi government would rather not deal with the physical presence of leaders from Russia and Iran in India right after the PM’s visit to Washington so the external affairs ministry has said the upcoming July 4 India summit of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will be held virtually. The ministry said that all SCO member states – China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – had been invited to attend the summit. Iran, Belarus and Mongolia have been invited as observers.