Indian General Says China Gave 'Live Inputs' to Pak During Op Sindoor; From Bench to Bar, Modi Govt Tightens Grip on Justice; EC to Detect Foreigners in Bihar
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 Siddharth Varadarajan for today’s Cable
Snapshot of the day
July 4, 2025
Siddharth Varadarajan
Clause 5(b) in the Election Commission's ‘detailed guidelines’ on its special intensive revision of the electoral roll in Bihar says that an electoral registration officer “will refer cases of suspected foreign nationals to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955”. Speaking to Pavan Korada, Supreme Court lawyer Mohammad Aman Khan cautioned that clause 5(b) could create a “parallel, informal pathway for citizenship verification without any of the legal safeguards” and that an ERO's suspicion – an undefined term – could “trigger … a process that should be governed by rigorous legal standards, not administrative discretion”. He also said that while the drafting of the National Register of Citizens in Assam was a statutory and court-monitored process, in Bihar we may see a “decentralised and opaque” process amounting to a “recipe for arbitrary action”.
Lt Gen Rahul Singh, Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Capability Development and Sustenance), on Friday said that when DGMO-level talks were on between India and Pakistan, Pakistan mentioned that it had information about India’s important locations that were primed for target. He further said that Pakistan requested India to take it down by a notch or two. Going further, Lt Gen Singh explained that India had to deal with one border and three adversaries. He said that while Pakistan was on the front foot, China was providing all the possible support at the backend. ANI quoted the deputy army chief as saying: “When the DGMO [director general of military operations]-level talks were going on, Pakistan actually was mentioning that ‘we know that your such and such important sort of...vector is primed and it is ready for action...I would request you to perhaps pull it back’. So he was getting live inputs from China.”
He added that around 81% of Pakistan’s military hardware is supplied by China. Taking a potshot at China, Lt Gen Singh called it the “good old victim killed by a borrowed knife”. “China, of course, the good old victim killed by a borrowed knife – 36 stratagems that China talks about. Killed by a borrowed knife. You would rather use the neighbour to cause pain than get involved in the mudslinging match on the northern border, that’s what they say.” The officer also said that India must be prepared for future attacks on “our population centres” and highlighted the need for strengthening air defence capabilities.
In the wake of Operation Sindoor, India’s Defence Acquisition Council has cleared proposals for the purchase of Armoured Recovery Vehicles, Electronic Warfare System, Integrated Common Inventory Management System for the Tri-Services and Surface-to-Air Missiles. Pegged at Rs 1.05 lakh crore, or $12.3 billion, these procurements “will provide higher mobility, effective air defence, better supply chain management and augment the operational preparedness of the Armed Forces,” says the Defence Ministry. Also on the list: Moored Mines, Mine Counter Measure Vessels, Super Rapid Gun Mount and Submersible Autonomous Vessels.
Earlier this week, India rejected the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration which held that the Indus Waters Treaty could not be held in abeyance. Now, Islamabad has said "the Award vindicates Pakistan's position that the Indus Waters Treaty remains valid and operational, and that India has no right to take unilateral action about it,"
Pakistan seems to have made another attempt to boost its defence cooperation with the United States, with Chief of the Air Staff Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu’s official visit to the country and the Pakistan Air Force announcing it as a “strategic milestone”. This is the first visit by a serving Pak Air Force chief in decades, making it an important step for Pakistan to step up military engagements. Sidhu’s visit to the US comes just days after Pakistan’s previous big attempt at improving defence ties with the US – a visit by Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir. Among those whom the PAF chief met in the US were Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs Kelly L. Seybolt and Air Force Chief of Staff General David W. Elon. Sidhu met both at the Pentagon where the two sides agreed to create new avenues for bilateral military cooperation, mutual affairs, joint training and technology exchange.
Police in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this week removed a poster depicting former Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini and former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a Muharram procession in Srinagar. When they attempted to remove a poster of Nasrallah in Budgam the next day, a sub-divisional police officer and a station house officer were allegedly roughed up in the protest that followed. Yesterday the Srinagar police also warned citizens to “immediately delete … and refrain from sharing or uploading… malicious content related to the removal of a particular flag” lest they invite “strict legal action”:
“It was a routine to extend solidarity with the besieged people of Palestine during the Muharram processions. But in recent years we are not even allowed to unfurl the Palestinian flags. This policy goes against the spirit of Muharram that commemorates the victory of the oppressor over the oppressed,” [a Srinagar resident] said.
Which section of the BNS is violated by the display of the Palestinian flag was not specified.
Speaking of the Palestinian flag in India, this postage stamp was issued by the Post Office in 1981…
In April and May this year, three men were killed in separate instances of hate-related violence in Karnataka's communalism-prone Dakshina Kannada district: Mohammed Ashraf, Suhas Shetty and Abdul Rehman. The state's Congress government has not announced compensation to any of the men's families despite their evidently being victims of violence, Sukanya Shantha reports. She recalls that in Ashraf's case, while local Congress leaders bought into media claims that he was killed after shouting ‘Pakistan zindabad’, a fact-finding team involving the People's Civil Liberties Union found that no such slogans had been raised.
Unable to contain the infighting in its state units, the BJP had to finally enlist the RSS's help in replacing various state chiefs in order to constitute an electoral college that can elect a national-level party president, but the move is still a band-aid solution. Meanwhile, it is anticipated that the RSS will announce its blessing for the next BJP chief – who will succeed a much-extended JP Nadda – during its three-day prant pracharak meeting that began today.
A Pune court rejected an application requesting a copy of the book Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had allegedly referred to while making an allegedly defamatory speech about Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar in London. Special Judge Amol Shinde of the MP/MLA court dismissed the plea filed by complainant Satyaki Savarkar, stating that Gandhi cannot be compelled to produce material that could be used as evidence against him, as it would violate his right against self-incrimination. “As per Article 20(3)…’No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. Therefore, this Court is of the opinion that an order cannot be passed directing the accused to file the incriminating documents,” said the court.
The Modi government’s hopes of India hosting the 2036 Olympics in Ahmedabad were met with a wake-up call from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), reports The Indian Express. The Indian delegation which visited the Swiss city of Lausanne to make this ambitious pitch on July 1 was headed by Gujarat’s home and sports minister Harsh Sanghavi and Indian Olympic Association president, the former athlete P.T. Usha. It had senior bureaucrats from the Gujarat and Union governments along with “private consultants and corporate executives.” Yet, the IOC asked India to settle its own issues like those of governance at the IOA, a rampant doping problem and India’s poor show at Olympics games. “It has been communicated very candidly that while India can continue preparing for its bid to host future Olympics, the country has to address these issues first. This was, in a nutshell, the big takeaway from this meeting,” the official who was privy to the discussions told the newspaper.
Speaking of sports, the Indian government has allowed the Pakistan men’s hockey team to travel to Rajgir for the upcoming Asia Cup. A Sports Ministry official stated that while bilateral ties remain on hold, India won’t block any team from participating in multi-nation tournaments it hosts. Denying entry over political issues would go against the Olympic Charter, officials clarified.
The United States government has decided to allow the continuation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact in Nepal, granting a special exemption to ongoing development projects despite a broader freeze on American foreign aid programs. Millennium Challenge Account-Nepal (MCA-Nepal), the implementing agency of the compact, issued a statement confirming the US decision and welcoming the move. The compact, which is worth $500 million in American grant assistance, focuses on upgrading Nepal’s electricity transmission infrastructure and improving key sections of the East-West Highway. According to MCA-Nepal, the US decision enables full implementation of the compact’s critical components, including the construction of 297 kilometers of 400 kV electricity transmission lines and road maintenance activities.
A fact-finding committee has accused the Sambhal administration of orchestrating an “engineered crisis” surrounding the November 24 survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh – an event that escalated into violent clashes, left five men dead, dozens injured, and led to mass arrests. Released by non-governmental organisation Association for Protection of Civil Rights and solidarity campaign Karwan-e-Mohabbat, it states that the survey was ordered ex parte after a petition by legal and Hindu temple representatives, without consulting the mosque committee. According to the report, eyewitness testimonies and videos “contradict the official narrative” that the crowd protesting the survey was violent. “Rather, they [testimonies and videos] depict excessive force by the police, including unlawful entries into homes, destruction of property and beatings”.
The Allahabad High Court asked the Uttar Pradesh government whether it had conducted any survey before taking the decision for “merger” of primary schools in the state. A Lucknow Bench of the court said that if a survey had been conducted, its report should be presented. The court also said that the government should present its stand on the plea against merger with full preparation and facts. For this, the court once again postponed the hearing till Friday. The Bench warned the lawyers that if the State’s stand was not presented with full preparation and facts even on Friday, it may impose a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the government.
The Gujarat High Court on Thursday extended religious leader and rape convict Asaram’s temporary medical bail by one month, but said this would be the final extension. The court rejected his lawyer’s request for a three-month extension, instead allowing 30 additional days. This follows the court’s earlier interim extension granted on June 30, which was valid until July 7.
The Delhi High Court restrained self proclaimed yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved from running allegedly disparaging advertisements about a product manufactured by consumer goods company Dabur. Justice Mini Pushkarna passed the interim order on a petition filed by Dabur, which alleged that Patanjali was disparaging its Chyawanprash product by claiming that no other manufacturer had the knowledge to prepare it. In its petition, Dabur objected to references in the advertisements that described a “40-herb” Chyawanprash as “ordinary”.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had found earlier this year that not only did Air India Express not comply with the EU aviation safety regulator's directive to replace some parts of a CFM engine on an Airbus A320, it appears to have “altered/forged” records to make it look like it complied on time, Reuters reports. The EU regulator had said that the engine parts if not replaced on time “could lead to failure of affected parts … with consequent damage to, and reduced control of, the aeroplane”. Air India Express told Reuters it took “remedial action and preventive measures” in response to the DGCA's missive.
Kerala has defended introducing Zumba lessons in public schools as part of its anti-drug campaign, after some Muslim and Hindu organisations protested, calling it immoral. Doubling down, the government slammed the outrage, stating such regressive objections are far more toxic than drugs themselves.
How will AI affect the generation of jobs in India, especially in Business Process Outsourcing firms, or BPOs, which have generated lakhs of jobs over the years? Karishma Mehrotra looks at the upside (AI is helping ‘translate accents’, making Indian call centres more competitive than they were earlier) and the downside:
“AI is going to crush entry-level white-collar hiring over the next 24 to 36 months,” said Mark Serdar, who has spent his career helping Fortune 500 companies expand their global workforce. “And it’s happening faster than most people realize.”
Only a BJP mind could gamify education: in Patna University, principals are now picked by lottery – because qualifications are overrated and chance is divine. Who needs merit when roulette wheels can run academia? Welcome to Ram Bharose University.
Rijiju's support for Dalai Lama notwithstanding, India still cautious on succession issue
When Union minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said yesterday that no one but the Dalai Lama ought to have a say in his succession, he was “speaking as a follower” and not on his government's behalf, he said when asked about Beijing's response to his statement. China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that India must “stop interfering with China's internal affairs with Xizang [Tibet Autonomous Region]-related issues” and avoid impacting easing bilateral ties. New Delhi responded by saying that it does not have a position on matters of faith. China maintains that the Dalai Lama's successor requires its permission to assume office. Rijiju's remarks had raised the question of whether they constituted an official departure from India's traditionally cautious stance on the Dalai Lama (and its silence on his succession). Apparently they do not.
GSTAT misses yet another deadline, still no sign of tribunal
Over six months after its promised launch, the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) remains non-existent, exposing a glaring governance failure. Originally slated to be operational by December 2024, the tribunal has yet to appoint a single member out of the required 72. Despite an energetic start in mid-2024, including hundreds of candidate interviews, the process stalled after Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra’s sudden departure. A second attempt in May 2025 was derailed by a court stay from an aggrieved aspirant. With states yet to nominate members or even provide infrastructure, Dilip Cherian says that GSTAT has become a symbol of bureaucratic paralysis – an institution born in press releases, but still missing in action.
Moscow first world capital to recognise Taliban regime
Russia has become the first country in the world to recognise Afghanistan's Taliban government. The decision – which Moscow said opens up prospects for trade and cooperation in “energy, transport, agriculture and infrastructure” – is the culmination of a period of growing diplomatic engagement between the two countries, notes the New York Times. And Russia isn't the only country that has been stepping up engagement with the Taliban. India just had its first ministerial-level interaction with the regime in May when external affairs minister S Jaishankar spoke on the phone with his opposite number Amir Khan Muttaqi. The latter said upon receiving Russian recognition that Moscow's “realistic decision” would “set a good example for other countries”.
The Long Cable
From Bench to Bar, the Executive Tightens Its Grip on Justice
Madan B. Lokur
The independence of the judiciary and the profession of lawyers is being slowly but surely compromised.
The political executive has been stalling the appointment of judges by disregarding the recommendations made by the collegium of judges of the Supreme Court (no less). There are well-known documented cases of the political executive taking no action on recommendations made by the collegium of judges, rendering the agreed Memorandum of Procedure nothing but a scrap of paper. Where appointments are made, they are delayed, thereby adversely impacting the seniority of some judges while favouring others. For the present purposes, it is not necessary to revisit these lanes and bye-lanes.
However, what is equally, if not more disconcerting is the view taken by the political executive that reiteration of recommendations by the collegium is meaningless. The Memorandum of Procedure, based on judgments of the Supreme Court, does not give room to the political executive to effectively reject candidates for judgeship when reiterated by the collegium. Yet, this is happening with not a squeak from the collegium. What are we to make of this? In my view, if the judiciary is unable to assert its independence, we might as well give up hope.
Dominance of the judiciary by the political executive has delayed justice delivery with the result that violent crimes appear to have increased. These are reported daily in newspapers, and TV channels hype up these cases and convict the suspects even before the police complete their investigation. So much for speedy justice.
But there are those who commit a crime and get away with it. They know the right people in the right places. Even the TV channels cannot touch them. A judge of a prestigious high court is facing an impeachment motion signed by the requisite number of parliamentarians. The allegation against him is of delivering a hate speech. Effective and meaningful steps have not been taken on the impeachment motion for over six months. How does one explain the inaction? Is it deliberate? On the other hand, another judge of another high court, in whose official residence large stacks of currency notes were found, is expected to face a fast track impeachment process. Why are the applicable standards so different? Incidentally, nobody knows where the currency came from and where it has disappeared – two extremely vital questions. It is not difficult to find out, but who cares. One judge has the right contacts, the other doesn't.
These are instances involving judges, but there are many more involving lay persons and many of them have got away without the investigation being completed or placed on the back burner. This is commonly referred to as the ‘washing machine syndrome’. It doesn’t matter if the washing machine is front loading or top loading - all are automatic with fuzzy logic.
While some sort of fear seems to be percolating the sinews of the judiciary, an attack has been launched on the practitioners of the legal profession. Lawyers are now the target of investigations for opinions given by them. Two recent incidents have shaken up the lawyer community. But the attack started a couple of years ago. A firm established by two lawyers called Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) specializing in environmental issues was among the first to take the flak. LIFE is the 2021 recipient of the Right Livelihood Award or alternative Nobel Prize for its work on environmental protection. It has given opinions on environmental issues and argued cases against influential lobbies. This attracted the attention of the powers that be and ever since then the lawyers have found themselves in quicksand. They are being hounded by the Income Tax Department (IT) and by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Like some suspected criminals, they have to take permission of the high court to travel abroad to attend conferences and leave a security deposit ensuring their return. So much for the independence of lawyers.
The issue of independence of lawyers has been further escalated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which recently issued summons to two respected senior advocates of the Supreme Court to appear with all documents. Why? Because the ED didn’t quite like the opinion given by them to their clients. It is frequently said in the legal fraternity that the bench and the bar are two wheels of a chariot. One wheel, the bench or the judiciary is already being pressurized and now the executive is targeting the other wheel, the bar. Fortunately, several bar associations/bodies across the country took up the “deeply disquieting development” of the ED summons to senior advocates with the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and better sense prevailed on the ED and the summons withdrawn. But the chilling effect remains.
That is not yet the end of the matter. The ED can still issue summons to lawyers with the permission of the Director of the ED. What are the circumstances in which permission can be granted? Are there any parameters for exercise of discretion by the Director? As things stand today, in the absence of clearly defined parameters, summons can again be arbitrarily issued to the two senior advocates with the fig leaf imprimatur of the Director. The assault on the independence of the lawyers can still continue, since no rule of law checks have been laid down by the Director in exercise of his power. These developments have compelled the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognizance of the shenanigans of the ED.
Meanwhile the European Committee on Legal Co-operation has prepared a Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer. This has not yet come into force, but many of its provisions would be extremely helpful in guiding and ensuring the independence of the legal profession. Its time the fraternity of lawyers takes steps to protect its interests as well as those of its clients, whether they are innocent or guilty.
Will the bar associations/bodies counterattack and take the battle to the executive? If they don't, all is lost. More importantly, having taken suo motu notice of the assault, will the Supreme Court uphold the independence of the legal profession, particularly when it is hard pressed to uphold the independence of the judiciary? Will the chariot continue to have its wheels?
Madan B. Lokur is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India
Reportedly
Dilip Cherian writes that as Ajit Doval “approaches the twilight of his tenure” as National Security Adviser, "jockeying” for his chair “has quietly begun.”
Pen vs sword
Deep dive
Shahid Jameel explains what the new WHO Pandemic Agreement is all about and why the world needs it. The Agreement is “primarily aimed at sharing information and addressing inequities in vaccine access towards improving global pandemic preparedness” and predictably the Trump administration has said the United States will not be a part of it:
“Pandemic amnesia and profiteering by protection of intellectual property rights of US companies even during a pandemic seems to be the real reason for this hostility. Despite its biomedical and pharmaceutical prowess, USA had the highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases (about 112 million) and deaths (1.2 million). Data show that when Covid-19 vaccines became available, excess death rates were higher amongst Republican voters compared to Democrats, primarily due to lower vaccination rates amongst the former (Wallace et al 2023). The rhetoric from Trump 2.0 appears to be lowering the confidence in vaccines, leading to reducing vaccination rates and the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles.
“If you are not at the table, you are on the menu. When the US stays away from the high table of global public health, it’s not just US children and adults who are at the mercy of emerging as well as vaccine preventable diseases. The entire world pays the price.”
Prime number: 94 out of 96
In Kamthi, BJP Maharashtra chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule’s victory is under a dark cloud. A Newslaundry investigation reveals that in 96 booths where new voter numbers surged by 10–110%, BJP won 94 – an uncanny pattern too precise to ignore. While the party touts it as a clean mandate, the data tells a murkier story.Opeds you don’t want to miss
The Election Commission's controversial special intensive revision ongoing in Bihar may be legally sound, but “legal defensibility is not the only metric in a democracy” – the poll body ought to not only act fairly, but be seen as doing so, says former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi. This is especially so given that the revision “risks disenfranchising the very people who are most likely to fall through the bureaucratic cracks”, such as Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, the urban poor, the elderly and women.
Calling the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar “an attack on the right to vote”, Yogendra Yadav says that the move “has shifted the onus of being on the voters' list from the state to the citizen” and that if the EC gets away with the plan in Bihar, the same process will follow in the rest of India.
India’s policy of not talking to Pakistan has reached a dead end, writes KP Nayar. Endorsing the IISS’s proposal for “private and informal dialogues between influential Indian and Pakistani retired officials and experts held in third countries”, he says that this would be “a better option than letting Trump take the lead on India-Pakistan talks.”
Harish Wankhede writes that Central universities and other premier educational institutions “must align their recruitment practices with the goal of social justice” and ensure that reserved faculty posts are not left vacant.
Devendra Fadnavis recently issued a rejoinder to Rahul Gandhi on his concerns surrounding the polling process in Maharashtra, including during the assembly elections of November. Pyara Lal Garg writes that although the chief minister's point-by-point response to Gandhi is befitting of parliamentary democracy, his citing of incorrect data, a turnout figure that doesn't appear to be in the public domain and his invocation of the ‘urban Naxal’ epithet against the LoP do more to cause concern than to soothe it.
Listen up
Academic Alok Rai points out that the BJP's attempts to make Hindi mandatory in certain levels of Maharashtra's education system isn't just about introducing the language. Instead, the move has “a larger cultural agenda behind it … The agenda is a Hindu agenda, an upper caste agenda” that is to also serve to “[consolidate] their support in the Hindi belt”, he tells Sidharth Bhatia in this episode of The Wire Talks.
Watch out
Almost “two millennia of caste privilege mean that Savaranas dominate Indian society” but they are a rather understudied group. Ravikant Kisana, whose new book, Meet the Savarnas, “intends to fill the gap”, speaks to Shoaib Daniyal about why he studies the ‘upper’ castes.
Over and out
“And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain,” sang American singer Frank Sinatra. But the curtains cannot seem to fall on fugitive billionaires Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya who were seen singing together at a lavish private party in London recently. A video clip shared by Modi himself showed the two performing Sinatra’s “My Way,” as guests looked on in an evening that he described as his “annual summer party.”
The Financial Times profiles Pooja Singha, the Delhi-based collector of Pichwai paintings who has mounted an exhibition of 400 Pichwais in London.
That’s it for today. We’ll be back with you on 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.