India Hardly in Any Position to Lecture Bangladesh on Security of the Minorities; Govt Opposes Guidelines in SC for Internet Shutdowns; Gautam Adani Withdraws From $ 553 Mn Loan Agreement in the US

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

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Snapshot of the day

December 11, 2024

Sidharth Bhatia

The tragic destabilisation of Iraq and Syria serves as a grim reminder of how external interference, fueled by cynical sectarian agendas, can dismantle plural societies and replace them with fractured, volatile regions. The United States and its allies, driven by strategic imperatives to isolate Iran, weaponized divisions, undermining two of West Asia’s most secular states. This manufactured sectarianism resonates ominously for India, a nation that prides itself on its pluralism but is increasingly grappling with forces that seek to polarise and fragment its social fabric. If Iraq and Syria’s fate holds any lesson, it is that the corrosion of a shared, inclusive identity under the weight of sectarian impulses can lead to the unravelling of even the most diverse and historically cohesive nations, writes former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran in a scathing piece.

Meanwhile, authorities in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh demolished part of a 185-year-old mosque on Tuesday in Fatehpur, citing “illegal construction.”