India Had World’s Highest Rate of Sectarian Tension in 2020: Pew; ‘The Kashmir Files’ is Not Just Propaganda, It’s Crass and Badly Made Too

Adani to redevelop Dharavi, MMR figures reveal child marriage rampant, only 9% women candidates in Gujarat polls, Moscow seeks more Indian imports, Karnataka education minister ponders Ravana vs Kasab

A newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas | Contributors: MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, Sushant Singh and Tanweer Alam | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal

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Snapshot of the day

November 30, 2022

Pratik Kanjilal

Globally, India had the highest rate of social tensions along religious lines in 2020, says a Pew Research Center report, which also looks at the impact of the pandemic on religious persecution in 2020. India is one of just four countries which saw pandemic-related social hostilities against religious groups involving physical violence or vandalism by private individuals or organisations. India was also among the countries in which private individuals or organisations linked the spread of the coronavirus to religious groups, the report said, recalling Islamophobic hashtags like ‘Corona Jihad’. 

At 9.4 out of a maximum possible score of 10, India’s Social Hostilities Index (SHI) in 2020 was worse than those of neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan, and worse than its own index value for 2019, Pew data from 198 countries showed. In the Government Restrictions Index that looks at laws, policies and state actions restricting religious beliefs and practices, India’s 34th rank was enough to categorise it among countries with “high” levels of such government restrictions. But 2020 was not India’s worst year on either index: 2016 was the worst with respect to social hostilities, and 2018 on government restrictions.

The Chief Justice of India has agreed to look into petitions filed by Bilkis Bano.

Jiang Zemin, who led a rising China into economic reforms and ended the country’s political isolation while continuing domestic crackdowns after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, has died aged 96.   

Nearly two years after it was launched, the government has been able to activate only 132,000 hotspots in the Prime Minister’s WiFi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI). The target was 10 million public WiFi hotspots by the end of this year, but there’s lack of interest in many areas, primarily due to low financial incentives. State-run entities like Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and the Indian Railways have also been slow in migrating WiFi hotspots to the PM-WANI network.

In a major consolidation, the Tatas yesterday announced the merger of Vistara with Air India. After the deal, to be completed by March 2024, Singapore Airlines will have a 25.1% stake in Air India. The Tata Group owns a 51% stake in Vistara and the rest is with Singapore Airlines (SIA).

Sanctions-hit Moscow has sent India a list of more than 500 products it wishes to import, including parts for cars, aircraft and trains. The list, a version of which has been seen by Reuters, is provisional and it is unclear how many of the items will eventually be exported and in what quantity, but an Indian government source said that the request was unusual in its scope. India is keen to narrow a ballooning trade deficit with Russia, but some companies and banks are wary about Western sanctions. 

“If a privileged me can’t be a judge, what hope for other homosexuals?” Senior Advocate Saurabh Kirpal discussed being rejected by the Centre despite the Collegium’s proposal for his elevation. Harish Salve is a surprising new entrant in the appointments tussle with the government. He says that Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has “gone too far”.

The Adani Group yesterday won a contract to redevelop Dharavi, one of the largest slum clusters in the world, with an initial investment of Rs 5,069 crore. SVR Srinivas, CEO of Dharavi Redevelopment Project and commissioner of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority said, “Adani Group won the bid with Rs 5,069 crore, DLF Group submitted a bid of Rs 2,025 crore, we did not open Naman Group’s bid, as it didn’t qualify due to technical reasons.” This is the fourth time in the last 18 years that the Maharashtra Government is attempting to build Dharavi, one of the world’s most densely populated areas with 58,000 families and 12,000 commercial establishments. 

“Over the decades, there have been several instances when you were found wanting when it came to punishing those who violated the principles of law, justice and humanity. Yet, we kept the faith. But today, you are unable to protect even those who fight for justice. Those who raised their voices against the government’s unconstitutional attempts to undermine the sanctity of citizenship were under no illusion about the risks they ran. After all, reducing minorities to second-class citizens has been a fundamental item on the ideological agenda of the ruling dispensation,” writes Anirban Bhattacharya, a friend of jailed scholar Umar Khalid, in an open letter to Lady Justice.

Organisations representing the Chakma and Hajong communities petitioned Union Home Minister Amit Shah yesterday against the recent cancellation of Residential Proof Certificates (RPCs) issued to them by the Arunachal Pradesh government and its directions for issuance of Temporary Settlement Certificates (TSCs) “for the purpose of education and job opportunities of central government only”. They said the TSCs were not serving the interests of the communities. A number of Chakmas and Hajongs were recently selected for jobs in the Assam Rifles but the paramilitary force said in an order dated November 23: “Temporary Residential Certificate not accepted as proof of domicile/permanent resident certificate.” 

BCCI has sent a conflict of interest notice to its president, Roger Binny, in a matter involving his daughter-in-law, Mayanti Langer. The complainant, Sanjeev Gupta, has alleged that Binny is conflicted as his daughter-in-law works for Star Sports, which has home season media rights for Indian cricket. BCCI ethics officer Vineet Saran has served a conflict of interest notice to him and PTI reports that Saran has asked Binny to file a written response by December 20.

In July-September, YouTube removed 1.7 million videos originating in India — the highest in the world — for violating guidelines, the firm said in its quarterly transparency report yesterday.

Twenty-three Indian fishermen have been detained by the Sri Lankan Navy from Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu. Five mechanised boats were also seized.

Scroll remembers the ‘Indian Titanic’ sunk by the Japanese in World War II. In November 1942, en route to Mombasa from Bombay, SS Tilawa was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy’s I-29 submarine and 280 lives were lost. The I-29 had another India connection which is not covered here: in April 1943, off Mozambique, it took aboard