Former Governor Satyapal Malik Targets Modi in Bombshells on Pulwama, Corruption; Lethal Flash Droughts 'Becoming Common in India'

SC says Karnataka scrapping Muslim quota ‘shaky, flawed’; Modi ‘retrofitting India’s past to control its future’, iPhone output in India triples, row over new UGC rules, India's oldest luxury hotel

Apr 14, 2023

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

Are you new to The India Cable or getting by with just the truncated newsletter? Once a week, we relax our paywall so non-subscribers can see for themselves the value of paying Rs 200/month (or Rs 2000/year) to get the most definitive daily picture of India in their inbox every day.

The India Cable is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We are a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Snapshot of the day

April 14, 2023

Vinay Pandey

Today is Ambedkar Jayanti. According to academic and human rights activist Anand Teltumbde, India is more casteist than ever before. Grandson-in-law of the architect of the Constitution, the 73-year-old said Ambedkar was being used by political parties to get Dalit votes. “Panchteerth [five places associated with Ambedkar’s life] has been created in his name and there are ‘I am here due to Ambedkar’ claims made, but they [political parties] are trampling his teachings at every moment,” he said.

Even by the outspoken standards of former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik, his latest comments are explosive. Speaking to Karan Thapar in an hour-long interview, Malik described Narendra Modi of being ignorant and ill-informed about Kashmir and of not bing particularly opposed to corruption. He also confirmed what has long been the subject of speculation – that official lapses committed in the face of known dangers led to the deadly terrorist attack at Pulwama in February 2019 that took the lives of dozens of Indian soldiers. More damagingly, he accuses Modi of instructing him to remain silent about these lapses. “Separately, Malik said that NSA Ajit Doval also told him to keep quiet and not talk about it. Malik said he immediately realised that the intention was to put the blame on Pakistan and derive electoral benefit for the government and the BJP,” writes Thapar.

As human-caused climate change continues, flash droughts, the kind that arrive quickly and can lay waste to crops in a matter of weeks, are becoming more common in tropical places like India, the New York Times reports, citing a new scientific study published in Science on Thursday. More abrupt dry spells could have grave consequences for people in humid regions whose livelihoods depend on rain-fed agriculture. The study found that, apart from India, flash droughts occurred more often than slower ones in parts of Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Amazon basin. But “even for slow droughts, the onset speed has been increasing,” Xing Yuan, the lead author of the study, was quoted as saying.

Behind the sweetness of Italy’s kiwi fruit lies the trafficking and exploitation of Indian workers, according to an investigation carried out by three media houses, including The Wire, and supported by the EU Journalism Fund. Seduced by the idea of earning well, thousands of Punjabi youths pay traffickers lakhs of rupees to get to Italy, only to find themselves working in conditions of near slavery.

New rules notified by the University Grants Commission on redress of grievances of students have kicked up a row as issues of caste-based discrimination have been clubbed with general complaints. The Telegraph quotes educationists as saying that the UGC (Redressal of Grievances of Students) Regulations, 2023, were a dilution of the rules already in place to deal with discrimination of students on the basis of caste.

Exploring ways to reduce its reliance on China as Washington-Beijing tensions continue to rise, Apple assembled more than $7 billion of iPhones in India during the last financial year, tripling production in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone arena, Bloomberg reports. The US company now makes almost 7% of its phones in India, a significant leap for a country that accounted for just about 1% of the world’s iPhones in 2021. For the first time this coming autumn, Apple is likely to manufacture the next iPhones in India at the same time as in China, the report says.

The Surat court hearing Rahul Gandhi’s appeal against his conviction in the Modi surname defamation case will pronounce its verdict on April 20. On Thursday, the court of additional sessions judge RP Mogera heard arguments from both sides and then reserved its verdict.

British prime minister Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, will receive about £6.7m in dividend payments this summer from her shares in Infosys, the technology company co-founded by her father, NR Narayana Murthy. The payment will bring Murty’s earnings from Infosys to £13m for this financial year, the Guardian reports. It is unclear whether she receives the dividend payment directly from Infosys and therefore whether this would be realised as income and taxed directly in the UK, the newspaper says, adding that Murty had used a letterbox company in the tax haven of Mauritius for other business interests to avoid taxes payable in India.

During a phone call with his British counterpart on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of security at Indian diplomatic establishments in Britain and called for “strong action against anti-India elements” by the UK government. Sunak, according to MEA, said his government deems the assault on the Indian high commission in London as completely unacceptable and assured the safety of the Indian mission and its staff. The two leaders also emphasised early conclusion of negotiations for an India-UK free trade treaty. Demands from both continue to be a hindrance in finalising the negotiations. New Delhi wants to make it easier for Indians to get British visas, whereas the UK’s main demands include removing enormous import duties on scotch whisky.

The Supreme Court told the Karnataka government on Thursday that a reading of the latter’s order scrapping the 4% quota for Muslims in the state “appears to suggest that prima facie … the foundation of its decision-making process is highly shaky and flawed”. The two-judge bench, headed by Justice KM Joseph, which was hearing a writ petition by L Ghulam Rasool and Anjuman-E-Islam challenging the government order, did not grant a stay as the state as well as counsel appearing for some leaders of Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities sought a few days to reply. The next date of hearing is April 18. The state has asserted that the Constitution does not permit reservation on the basis of religion. Just two days before the forthcoming assembly elections were announced, Karnataka’s BJP government scrapped the quota for backward Muslims and gave it to Vokkaligas and Lingayats.

In a one-of-its-kind development, the taxpayer-funded Doordarshan National channel will broadcast Dharohar Bharat Ki – Punruthaan ki Kahaani (Heritage of India – A Tale of Revival), over this weekend. The two-part documentary will trace “Modi’s vision and its execution to build new national iconic sites”.

India and the World Food Programme (WFP) signed an MoU on Thursday, opening the door for the delivery of 10,000 metric tonnes of wheat to the people of Afghanistan. WFP officials assured India they have the necessary infrastructure in place to enable prompt delivery of wheat to the most vulnerable groups of the Afghan population.

The Economist looks at how Modi is retrofitting India’s past to control its future. “This politicised assault on Indian history is a mirror image, notes historian Mukul Kesavan of Pakistan’s attempt to retrofit its past to match an exclusionary present. “It may seem as risible as the image, long ridiculed by Indian liberals, of RSS officers strutting about in their erstwhile uniform of khaki shorts, like so many overgrown boy scouts. But it is also, like the RSS, which took inspiration from early 20th-century European fascist movements, extremely dangerous. Hindutva entails above all, as Mr Kesavan puts it, a ‘ferocious hatred for the Other’,” the magazine writes in its Banyan column. This strategic erasure of history in Indian textbooks holds lessons for historians across the world.

A University of Oxford-developed, Serum Institute of India-manufactured and scaled-up "high efficacy" malaria vaccine has been licensed for use in Ghana by Africa’s Food and Drugs Authority, the university has announced. The R21/Matrix-M vaccine has been approved for use in children aged 5 to 36 months – the age group at the highest risk of death from malaria. It marks the first regulatory clearance for this malaria vaccine for use in any country.

The fishing community on both side of the India-Pakistan border has demanded the immediate release of 666 Indian fishermen imprisoned in Pakistan and 118 Pakistani fishermen lodged in an Indian jail for years.

Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadwi, 94, renowned Islamic scholar and head of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, died in Lucknow after a protracted illness.

Rahul, Kharge after meeting Pawar: ‘We’re all working for opposition unity’

Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi at Kharge's residence in New Delhi on Thursday. After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi said they were all working together for “opposition unity”. “To save the country and democracy and keep the Constitution safe, for freedom of speech and expression, for employment of youth and issues like inflation and misuse of autonomous bodies, we are ready to fight as one. We will talk to everyone one by one. Pawar sahab, too, says the same,” Kharge declared.

About 10% of wheat crop damaged by unseasonal rain in March

India was aiming for wheat production of 112 million tonnes in 2023, 5% higher than last year. It had sown wheat over 34 million hectares, slightly higher than last year. The crop, however, has been hit by excessive rainfall in March, when it enters the vital grain-filling stage and gets ready for harvesting in April. According to India’s agriculture commissioner, PK Singh, initial estimates suggest that 8%–10% of the wheat crop has been damaged by the unseasonal rain and hailstorms. The government is reviewing the extent of damage and has decided to continue the ban on wheat export imposed in 2022. Last year, the crop was ravaged by heat.

Gujarat hate speech accused showered with petals after getting bail

A sessions court in Gujarat on Thursday granted bail to Kajal Hindustani, who was arrested for delivering a hate speech at an event organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leading to a communal clash in Una in Somnath district on April 1. The bail conditions imposed are that she will present herself at a police station near her residence twice every month and that, except for appearing for hearings, she will not enter Somnath district until her trial is over. She was showered with flower petals after she was released from a jail.

Air India announces eco-friendly ‘taxibot’ operations

Air India, which is owned by Tata, has announced that some of its Airbus A320 family planes will be able to taxi using robot tractors, or TaxiBots, at the airports in Bengaluru and Delhi. According to the airline, the change will allow it to reduce its fuel use by over 15,000 tonnes over three years. The announcement by Air India comes at a time when the aviation sector is pushing for sustainability efforts, and the International Air Transport Association, whose members include Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo, has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Long Cable

Time for rule of truth to trump rule of law

S Prasanna

The government recently amended the Intermediary Rules under the Information Technology Act. As such, media and social media intermediaries will have to take down any information about the “business of the central government” that has been “fact-checked” and found “false” or “misleading” by a designated government agency. The failure to adhere to the take-down obligation will result in the intermediary losing its “safe harbour” and legal immunity from any third-party action, and would also be separately actionable under the IT Act for violation of the rules. While it is tempting to understand and reason the desirability and validity of this amendment, perhaps there is another frame to place it in.

Law draws its legitimacy from its promise to best approximate the truth. The State adores the law, for it has great use for this promise of approximation. The language of the law has many convenient devices – presumption, [legal] fiction, finality, closure and even justice – that help steer attention away from, and on occasion, undermine, the truth. The State has also appropriated and co-opted the idea of the argument, which belongs in the domain of truth, so much so that our imagination locates it more in the arena of the law.

Recent Indian legal history is a fascinating study of the creative employment of these devices in substituting in place of truth what the State states. Aadhaar approximates the truth of who you are to what has been entered in the database. Similarly, the NRC does that to where you were born and where your parents were born (which should not have been remotely relevant). The law on grant of bail under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act similarly approximates the truth to what the prosecution claims.

The IT Rules amendment is another item in that series. This amendment is made to the intermediary rules that came in 2021 and brought in an entire regulatory regime and ethics code for all online news media, which the Bombay and Madras high courts found fit to stay, following legal challenges filed by digital news organisations contending that these amounted to government interference in and violation of press freedom.

The present measure attempts to approximate the truth on the falsity of any information to what the government’s fact-checking unit says. The justifications for this measure are easy – the government knows the best about its own business and can provide the best approximation of the truth, and it is designed to reduce misinformation in circulation and advance the cause of informational justice.

Challenges to this amendment have already been filed, and the courts will no doubt hear familiar arguments premised on freedom of speech, the Supreme Court's past precedents on why the government should not be in the business of regulating or controlling the press, constitutional supremacy, chilling effect, unreasonableness of the restriction, and the rule of law. The top court may also hear arguments from some quarters on why social media platform autonomy is desirable for the fulfilment of the right to free speech. The State is likely to chant reasonable restrictions, misinformation campaigns leading to issues of public order and national security.

However, the courtroom is unlikely to expose the full extent of the malice in the measure. For instance, there is already legislation that deals with informational justice and the truth about the “business of central government”. And that is the Right to Information Act. This government’s constant endeavour to discipline and dismantle that law to increasingly hide and decreasingly reveal information is the opposite of the “constant endeavour” that it is supposed to press under Section 4 of that act. This obvious duplicity will never feature in the judgment that decides those challenges. The law has again approximated the truth of what is the object of a legislative measure to what the state states in that law.

What is also striking is the choice of the legal device used – even when less drastic options exist. The amendment could have, for instance, made it necessary for the intermediary to factor in and consider as relevant, the government “fact-check” in determining whether to take down content; or it could have mandated the intermediary to presume the fact-check result is correct unless it records reasons why it has considered the presumption to have been rebutted. These nicer options are somehow exclusively used when the State is the decision maker.

Having said that, the measure does betray a feeling of control-deficit within the government. This indicates that there may perhaps be spaces for the process of public reason which remain unhacked. These may very well contain the means to rescue the truth from the law and its institutions, which continue to privilege what the State states over the truth by bestowing trust that must only be earned. The rule of law has thus far been central to the idea of democracy. It is perhaps time for the rule of truth to take over.

(S Prasanna is a Delhi based lawyer)

Reportedly

There are major allegations of sexual harassment against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Singh, a BJP MP. In an unprecedented move, top achievers such as Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik staged a sit-in protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in January and accused Singh of sexual exploitation and intimidation. The wrestlers had demanded that he be removed and the WFI be disbanded. But it looks like the five-member oversight committee, headed by boxer MC Mary Kom, which submitted its report this month, may have managed to exonerate Singh. Since the formation of the committee, top Indian wrestlers have not competed at international meets, missing the UWW Ranking Series events in Zagreb and Alexandria. UWW, the world governing body of the sport, is said to have taken away the hosting rights of the Asian Championship from India, citing a complaint from the top wrestlers. Singh has admitted to a murder on video and described himself as a shaktishaali (powerful) wrestler in the past. Others say the BJP’s Kaiserganj MP is a classic baahubali.

Prime Number: 4.84

Two persons – one the son of gangster turned politician Atiq Ahmed and the other his supposed aide – have been gunned down by the Uttar Pradesh police. Good time to recall the breakdown of the system in UP, where cops have said they have done 10,713 encounters during chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s tenure. That’s 4.84 encounters every day including Sundays for the past six years. This is from the government’s own data.

Deep Dive

It is the birthday of Dr BR Ambedkar today. All his writings and speeches are available here.

This is the only website where there is no picture of Modi that dominates. Perhaps the India Cable should refrain from giving people ideas.

Opeds you don’t want to miss

New Delhi’s China policy is timorous, writes Sushant Singh.
Drawing lessons from Ambedkar’s academic credentials, Harish S Wankhede argues that intellectuals must play a big role in the social-justice movement.
Babasaheb’s warning – in politics, bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to dictatorship – fits our era, writes Dushyant Dave.
Don’t waste your time bridging the political chasm over family meals. For real impact, you will have to work harder, reminds Priya Ramani.
Sanatanists – led by Karpatri Swami, who had led a political movement against the Hindu Code Bill – severely resisted the Constitution and persisted with their efforts to save Kashi Vishwanath from being “polluted” by Dalits – read excerpts from Manoj Mitta’s new book, Caste Pride.
The disinformation playbook – a government that wants to fact check the fact-checkers, writes Derek O’Brien.
Really, royally, bloody – many react to NCERT’s deletion of chapters on Mughals by pointing to those rulers’ brutality, but all kings everywhere were brutal, and viewed from this prism, history has few heroes, writes Manu S Pillai.
History proves that solid-seeming populations do succumb to fascism, writes Marilyn Robinson – about the US, but equally about elsewhere.
Bharat Bhushan examines how Ukraine’s Emine Dzhaparova has exposed India’s Vishwaguru pipedreams.
Sunil Kumar analyses whether political ignorance after communal violence will affect the year-end polls in Chhattisgarh?
Is the current regulatory system equipped to deal with AI? Prashanth Perumal J takes a look.
Much like the cheetah’s reintroduction, which happened without addressing concerns raised by wildlife experts, India’s tiger story also seems to be headed towards a project led less by science and more by publicity, writes Nihar Gokhale.
Who’ll finance Indian infrastructure after the Adani scandal? Andy Mukherjee explores.
To STEM or not – read this excerpt from Avik Chanda and Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay’s new book, Work 3.0.
Hari Arayammakul writes in defence of Indian English.

Listen up

On October 14, 1956, Dr BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, took a life-altering decision. The Dalit icon decided to quit Hinduism and convert to Buddhism, along with close to 3,65,000 of his followers in Nagpur. This podcast recalls that momentous event.

Watch out

Watch actor Radhika Apte, who plays Mrs Undercover.

Over and out

Read about WM Namjoshi – India’s forgotten designer who made single-screen cinema iconic by creating a theatre shrouded in mystery.

Established in 1830, the Spence’s Hotel in Calcutta was the first European-style luxury hotel in Asia. This thread looks at its fascinating history.

‘We are Bengali women, don’t tell us what to wear or eat, whom to worship or love’, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra told the BJP – as a response to a dodgy comment made by one of its key leaders – in a short video clip that has gone viral.

That’s it for today. We’ll be back with you Monday, on a device near you. If The India Cable was forwarded to you by a friend (perhaps a common friend!) book your own copy by SUBSCRIBING HERE.