Gujarat Riots Took Place in the ‘Backdrop’ of 9/11, Kandahar Hijack, Says Modi; Europe Versus Russia (And America); Modi Govt Planning to Auction 11 Airports, Profitable and Loss Making

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

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Over to Sidharth Bhatia for today’s Cable

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Snapshot of the day

March 17, 2025

Sidharth Bhatia

Did all the animals at the Ambanis’ Vantara animal sanctuary – the number of which has been pegged by the Süddeutsche Zeitung German newspaper at a whopping 39,000 – really need rescuing? An investigation by SZ finds that Vantara has received animals from dubious organisations abroad and that these creatures include the protected bonobo and mountain gorilla. The reporters of the newspaper ask:

“… Can a lighthouse project like Vantara rely on exporters who apparently want to conceal their trading activities? And on authorities that approve the export of a bonobo and a mountain gorilla to India?”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed that the riots in Gujarat in 2002 took place in