First Mevani, Now Khera: Assam Police Emerge as Top Enforcers of Modi Cult; Larry Summers Speaks of ‘India’s Enron Moment’, Adani CFO Talks Up Supportive Foreign Banks

Markets shed Rs 3.87 lakh crore, India wants sanctions-free G20 & citizens want conflict over, glacial lake blowouts threaten 5 million in India and Pakistan, primeval Bhimbetka ‘fossil’ just beeswax

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

February 23, 2023

Pratik Kanjilal

The Assam Police flew down to Delhi to arrest Congress leader Pawan Khera for referring to the Prime Minister as ‘Narendra Gautamdas Modi’ instead of Narendra Damodardas Modi’. Khera had spoken at a press conference and immediately corrected the flubbed middle name but the police booked him under criminal law sections which outlaw inciting hatred against members of a group based on their identity. Does this mean Modi constitutes a group of one?

This is the second time the Assam Police have travelled more than a thousand kilometres to arrest opposition politicians who have spoken disparagingly about the Great Leader. Last year Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani was arrested and flown back to Guwahati for suggesting Modi was a fan of Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s assassin. Khera approached the Supreme Court and was granted protection from arrest. “We also accept that taken on their face value, the spoken words do not lead to the sections invoked in the FIR,’ Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said.

In a historic move, hundreds of Dalits entered the Muthumariamman temple in Tamil Nadu on January 30. Vengeful retaliation by caste Hindus followed, including violence and economic boycott, and the state government has done little to protect the victims. Caste Hindus in their village have cut off water supply to Dalits’ small holdings. Standing crops are withering. Dalit labourers have been removed from their jobs. A social and economic boycott has forced them to travel to nearby villages to earn a livelihood or even buy provisions. Even the parai (traditional drum) artistes from the Paraiyar community have been banned from performing at village functions. The News Minute has a ground report.

The Rajasthan Police have released the names of eight cow vigilantes responsible for the murder of two Muslim men from Bharatpur, whose charred bodies were found in a vehicle in Bhiwani, Haryana, on February 16. Missing is the name of Mohit Yadav or ‘Monu Manesar’, one of the figureheads of cow vigilantism in Haryana, who has claimed innocence, and for whom two Hindu Mahapanchayats have been held in two days. Rajasthan police investigators have alleged that the nine accused allegedly accosted, kidnapped and assaulted Junaid (35) and Nasir (27) on February 15 and took them to at least two police stations in Firozpur Jhirka but were turned away. The Haryana police said they were investigating the claims. 

In an interaction on Tuesday with institutional investors, Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh said that while foreign banks take “credit decisions”, Indian banks take “name decisions”. Of the group’s debt, over half is foreign debt in the form of overseas bonds and loans taken from foreign entities, a fifth is from foreign banks and a fourth is from domestic banks. Singh said the group’s gross debt is $30 billion. Hindu Business Line reports that some Indian banks were reluctant to lend more to Adani, inducing a cash crunch. Throughout the crisis, foreign banks have been supportive of the group in terms of continued funding, keeping their eye on the main chance.

Former US treasury secretary and former Harvard University president Larry Summers has likened the Adani controversy in India to a “possible Enron moment”, adding that it would be on the minds of the G20 finance ministers when they meet in Bangalore this week. Responding to questions on Bloomberg’s Wall Street Week last Friday, Summers brought up the Adani issue without naming the group. However, Bloomberg ran the conglomerate’s logo through the clip. Asked what he was looking for in the G20 meetings, Summers said: “We haven’t talked about it on the show but there’s been a kind of possible Enron moment in India…”

Volatility in the share market yesterday wiped out nearly Rs 3.87 lakh crore of investors’ wealth as the BSE market capitalisation dropped to seventh globally. The biggest single-day fall in two months pushed the Sensex below the psychological 60,000 mark, and 250 BSE stocks were locked in the lower circuit against 139 scrips in the upper circuit. As many as 266 stocks hit their 52-week low against 68 stocks at a 52-week high.

Attacking the BBC’s Modi documentary, the external affairs minister S Jaisahnkar said, “Many things happened in Delhi in 1984. Why didn’t we see a documentary on that?” Perhaps he didn’t, but we did. Here’s what the BBC published and produced on the anti-Sikh killings of that terrible year.

In India, 54% of respondents in a global survey agree that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine needs to stop as soon as possible, even if it means Ukraine giving control of areas of its territory to Russia. This is higher than the 44% recorded in Russia itself, as per a report by the European Council of Foreign Relations. Another 30% Indians would prefer Ukraine to regain all of its territory, even if it means a longer war or more Ukrainians being killed and displaced, while 12% contend that Western dominance of the world needs to be pushed back, even if it means accepting Russian territorial aggression against Ukraine. Russia is seen either as an “ally” or a “partner” by 80% of Indians.

India does not want the G20 nations to discuss additional sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, reports Reuters. The war’s macroeconomic impact would be discussed but India does not want to deliberate on additional actions against Russia during its one-year presidency. “India is not keen to discuss or back any additional sanctions on Russia during the G20,” said an official. “The existing sanctions on Russia have had a negative impact on the world.”

The second round of the G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting is being held today in Bengaluru. The first meeting was held there in December. It is a one-day event preceding the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meet on February 24-25, also in Bengaluru. The meeting coincides with the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, which is also expected to feature prominently in the discussions. The deputies’ meeting will be dedicated to the finalisation of the communiqué that will be endorsed by the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors during their meeting, according to a government release.

Rana Ayyub @RanaAyyub

How much hate will be enough for this country. In Navi Mumbai, hoardings asking Hindus to come together for a rally against ‘Love Jihad’ and ‘Land Jihad’ expressing Hindu anger. The hoardings ironically placed very close to the G20-Mother of Democracy posters.

 At a seminar organised by the Committee on Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms, senior advocate Dushyant Dave had strong points to make about the way judges are appointed.

Indian nationalism in formerly Bangladeshi enclaves along the India-Bangladesh borderland thrives despite state failures to provide residents full rights and benefits of citizenship, and even human dignity. The former Bangladeshi enclaves are a unique case where the emergence of nationalism is not a product of colonial experience but of the absence of statehood and citizenship rights. On their journey from statelessness to Indian citizenship, these newly minted Indian citizens or the chhit bodoli people (‘enclave swap’ people) are expected to perform Indianness – and have actively done so. But their inclusion in the national community is documentary rather than organic, writes Anindita Ghosh in Scroll.in.

After Seattle became the first US city to ban caste-based discrimination after a vote by the local council, the BBC explains why this matters. “Ahead of the vote, several South Asians stood in line for hours to share their stories with council members.”

It is rare for a museum director to cite economic development data while discussing their inaugural exhibition. But that is how Kamini Sawhney, head of the new Museum of Art and Photography in Bengaluru, decided on ‘Visible/Invisible: Representation of Women in Art Through the MAP Collection’. “In 2021, women dropped to 20% of the workforce in India. That is lower than Bangladesh. There was a report from Statista that said that India was the most dangerous country for women across a range of parameters,” Sawhney says. “I felt this is a narrative we need to pick up.” The resulting exhibition, curated by Sawhney, combines art, sculpture, quilts, movie posters and photography to tackle a monumental paradox in a land of paradoxes.