Eight Former Indian Navy Officers Get Death Sentence in Qatar for Espionage; Maharashtra’s Communal Dynamics Exposed

DMK leader says Modi using Ram as political tool, Green Card queue to lengthen, Rajkummar Rao EC’s national icon for ‘Newton’ role, Nehru's prescience on internal threats to India's national security

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

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Snapshot of the day

October 26, 2023

Pratik Kanjilal

Though their families were optimistic about repatriation, eight former Indian Navy officers have been sentenced to death by a Qatar court for espionage. The Ministry of External Affairs has expressed shock,  though reports had suggested they were accused of spying for Israel and faced the death penalty. The Indian government has been offering them diplomatic and legal support, but apparently to no effect.  India “should’ve forcefully intervened at the start by insisting on transparent trial… nowing how opaquely the judiciary functions in Gulf sheikhdoms,” KC Singh, a former ambassador to the UAE and an expert on the region, said. “There’s only one escape route. The ruler has to intervene and grant a pardon and deport the persons,” he added.

Israel has asked India to declare Hamas a terror organisation, Israeli ambassador Naor Gilon said on Wednesday. In an interaction with reporters, Gilon said that Israel had asked Indian authorities to designate the Palestinian group as a terrorist organisation following its terror attack on southern Israel on October 7, which left around 1,200 people dead. 

Perhaps going beyond the call of duty, Gilon also met Bollywood actress and drama queen Kangana Ranaut, who expressed strong support for Israel, drawing parallels between the historic tribulations of Jews and Hindus, though little is formally known about the latter case. “Even by her own standards, Ranaut was in top form as both