Kejriwal Released as SC Judge Warns CBI Not to Be Caged Parrot; Satellite Images Capture Extent of Manipur Ethnic Cleansing
Harrowing allegations of custodial torture, rape emerge from MP’s Guna, Modi government’s narrative building on jobs is just not succeeding, Godi media plumbs new low
A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Sushant Singh, MK Venu, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Tanweer Alam, Siddharth Varadarajan and Seema Chishti | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK
Snapshot of the day
September 13, 2024
Siddharth Varadarajan
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal walked out of Tihar Jail today hours after a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court granted him bail in the case filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Like the Enforcement Directorate, which had filed a similar case earlier, the CBI’s charge is that there has been corruption in the state government’s liquor policy. Kejriwal told supporters that he would continue to fight the “anti-national forces working to weaken our country.”
The bail granted by the Supreme Court comes with a list of conditions, two of which are likely to be controversial: Kejriwal is not allowed to go to his official office or sign files unless his signature is required on files that the Lieutenant Governor needs to approve.
While Justice Surya Kant did not find any illegality in the CBI arrest, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan questioned the necessity and timing of Kejriwal's arrest:
“The CBI case was registered on 17.08.2022. Till the arrest of the appellant by the ED on 21.03.2024, CBI did not feel the necessity to arrest the appellant though it had interrogated him about a year back on 16.04.2023…
“It was only after the learned Special Judge granted regular bail to the appellant in the ED case that the CBI activated its machinery and took the appellant into custody. Such action on the part of the CBI raises a serious question mark on the timing of the arrest; rather on the arrest itself. For 22 months, CBI does not arrest the appellant but after the learned Special Judge grants regular bail to the appellant in the ED case, CBI seeks his custody. In the circumstances, a view may be taken that such an arrest by the CBI was perhaps only to frustrate the bail granted to the appellant in the ED case."Justice Bhuyan also had stern words for the CBI:
Like Caesar's wife, an investigating agency must be above board. Not long ago, this court has castigated the CBI comparing it to a caged parrot. It is imperative that CBI dispels the notion of it being a caged parrot. Rather, the perception should be that of an uncaged parrot."Kejriwal’s immediate focus is likely to be on the Haryana assembly elections, where the Aam Aadmi Party has decided to go it alone in all of the state’s 90 seats following the failure to reach a seat sharing agreement with the Congress. Beyond that, Delhi’s assembly election is due next February; anything less than a handsome win will make AAP’s fight against the BJP more difficult. A further complication is the likely revival of the Congress in the capital.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said that “alleged involvement in crime is no ground for demolition of a property” and that it “cannot be oblivious to such demolition threats inconceivable in a nation where law is supreme”. “In a country where actions of the State are governed by the rule of law, the transgression by a family member cannot invite action against other members of the family or their legally constructed residence. Alleged involvement in crime is no ground for demolition of a property. Moreover the alleged crime has to be proved through due legal process in a Court of law. The Court cannot be oblivious to such demolition threats inconceivable in a nation where law is supreme. Otherwise such actions may be seen as running a bulldozer over the laws of the land”, a three-judge bench presided by Justice Hirhsikesh Roy said. The bench, also comprising justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and SVN Bhatti, condemned the practice of demolishing the properties of people accused of crimes, and, sometimes, of their families, often using earthmovers or bulldozers, without following due process.
The emphatic observation by the apex court came in a case concerning the attempted demolition of an ancestral house in Gujarat’s Kheda district because of the alleged involvement of a family member in a criminal incident. The property, occupied for three generations, was sought to be razed, prompting the court to step in. The bench stayed the demolition and sought explanations from the concerned authorities within four weeks. This intervention is part of a growing – but so far inadequate – judicial response to the rising trend of “bulldozer justice” across India. Earlier this month, another Supreme Court bench had initiated steps toward issuing pan-India guidelines on demolitions, amid increasing concerns over the arbitrary destruction of properties. The court had noted that demolishing homes of accused persons without following legal procedures violates fundamental rights and due process, raising serious constitutional concerns.
Mobile internet remains suspended in five districts in Manipur’s Imphal valley but the ban on broadband internet was lifted on Thursday. While the valley was “more or less calm”, some people torched a health centre in the state’s Jiribam district yesterday, The Hindu reports. Meanwhile, the Army has poured cold water on reports that Kuki militants used drones to attack valley areas, saying there was no evidence of drones dropping bombs in the state.
Reporter Yaqut Ali has a disturbing story on the extent to which ethnic cleansing of Kukis and Meiteis has taken place from the valley and hill areas of Manipur respectively. Based on ‘before’ and ‘after’ satellite images of Imphal, Churachandpur, Bishnupur and Kangkopki, this is compelling visual evidence of the de facto ethnic partition of the state — and of the ‘double engine’ BJP sarkar’s failure to restore normalcy. Whole villages have been erased and entire urban neighbourhoods burned down, displacing tens of thousands of people.
Taking governor-government acrimony to a new level, West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose has announced his ‘social boycott’ of Mamata Banerjee after the state government failed to clear its impasse with protesting junior doctors. Bose said he will not participate in public functions where she happens to be present and will not share a public platform with her. Shiv Sahay Singh reports that Bose intends to take “proactive steps against [Banerjee] for violating constitutional provisions”. As for the standoff with the doctors, Monideepa Banerjee believes Mamata has won round one:
“Master politician Mamata Banerjee has outmanoeuvred them by several miles, leaving them stunned, dumbfounded, and looking somewhat foolish, while she emerged practically smelling of roses. In a press briefing Thursday, after the doctors refused to meet Mamata unless certain conditions were met, she took the moral high ground, even offering to resign as chief minister if that’s what it took to get the doctors back to work. She also refused to take punitive action against them and said she was ready to forgive them as she knew that some secretive political puppeteers were apparently manipulating the “youngsters” to try grab her chair.”
Meanwhile in Kolkata, police arrested a third-year college student named Rupsha Mandal for statements conducing to public mischief and intending to cause riots, citing WhatsApp messages she sent allegedly calling for an attack on Banerjee’s home. A group she was in also allegedly featured discussions on burning police stations; however, some protestors question the veracity of the police’s claims.
Three weeks on, what exactly do we know about the politics and demands of the protestors in Kolkata? “While the protests have seen shows of unity like no other, and although all agitators have called for punishment for the crime's perpetrators, reports Soumashree Sarkar, there are subtle differences in their other demands.”
In a response to Swiss media reports of several accounts linked to it being frozen in Switzerland, the Adani group yesterday made much of the fact that the court document everyone is referring to does not name the company. The Financial Times clears up the mystery :
“While Swiss criminal courts do not identify participants by name, its descriptions of the parties by reference to Hindenburg’s dossier and subsequent reporting by the Financial Times match Adani and its suspected frontman, the Taiwanese businessman Chang Chung-Ling. “
And, oh, Madhabi Puri Buch has issued a statement in which she says she “has complied with all the disclosure and recusal guidelines of SEBI, and in fact, maintained a proactive continuing recusal list with SEBI over and above the requirements under the guidelines.”
The Economist takes stock of why family empires dominate business in India. “Dominance of India’s economy by a few families is an outcome its post-independence government overtly sought to avoid. Various laws passed between 1947 and 1969 sought to curtail the growth of large companies. Many firms were nationalised and various industries, such as mining and telecoms, were reserved for the state. In practice, the vast regulatory burden of doing business in the country continued to benefit large family enterprises with strong connections—an advantage that persists today. In a country with weak institutions, these firms are better placed to attract capital, negotiate with workers and sway government policy in their favour. A focus on leaving a legacy may also encourage family-run businesses to invest more in their long-term success. It helps that, unlike many rich countries, India has not imposed an inheritance tax since 1985, making it easier to maintain family control across generations.” But there are signs of change underway, it hints.
Police in Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan district shot at least two people dead yesterday after an eviction drive turned violent. People living on government land reportedly became angry when asked to leave and allegedly attacked police officers with weapons. One local resident alleged that the eviction drive targeted only Muslims and not others at the site.
The US State Department has sanctioned a Chinese company for working with Pakistan’s National Development Complex, which it identifies as “being involved in the development and production of Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missiles”. It also sanctioned three Chinese firms, one Chinese national and a Pakistani entity for their “knowingly [transferring] equipment and technology controlled under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) Annex … to a non-MTCR country”.
In Kashmir’s Kulgam assembly constituency, the entry of Jamaat-e-Islami J&K-backed candidate Sayar Ahmed Reshi coupled with the merging of pro-Jamaat villages into the seat could result in a tough fight for incumbent CPI(M) MLA MY Tarigami, Jehangir Ali reports. The Jamaat used to advocate for the boycott of elections, but the fact that its own (indirect; it is officially banned) candidate is in the fray could land Tarigami in troubled waters, an analyst noted. Another factor in the mix is National Conference cadres irked by Tarigami being fielded from the seat and not a popular scion from within the party.
Umar Khalid has been in jail for four years now, without bail or trial. Thousands of folks on X are remembering him, even if the courts don’t.
Two days after Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin said his government was in talks with Ford, the automobile manufacturer has said it plans to restart a manufacturing plant in the state in order to export cars to the global market, Reuters reports. Ford stopped making cars for the Indian market in 2021.
A public interaction Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held in Coimbatore didn’t quite go according to plan. The owner of the Annapoorna chain of restaurants, Srinivasan, complained about the different GST rates for different food items, delivering the most devastating critique of GST yet. It is even more devastating in Tamil. He told her how GST on buns is 5% and on cream is 12% and on buns with cream is 18%. Customers have figured this and ask for bun and cream separately!
As the video of his question went viral, making Sitharaman look foolish, the BJP leaked a video of a private interaction the restaurant owner had with Sitharaman where he said, ‘Please pardon me for my comments. I do not belong to any political party.” The video was leaked by BJP leader Annamalai presumably to undo the damage but the wider public saw it as evidence that the minister is so intolerant of any questioning that she had forced Srinivasan to apologise. By noon, the BJP decided to cut its losses and got Annamalai to apologise for this “unintended breach of privacy”.
DNA testing has established that bones found at Goa’s Church of St Augustine belong to Queen Ketevan the Martyr, who is believed to have died in 1624 and is considered a saint by Georgians.
This week has been harder, harder than we imagined it to be. But the least we can do is to fight for truth, no matter what.
Despite deadlock over Depsang, Demchock, India tones down its language on China
Even as External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar stated that “75%” of the “disengagement problems” with China have been resolved, National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and emphasised the “urgency” and the need to “redouble” efforts to resolve the remaining areas. At their previous meeting, Doval had told Wang Yi, Member of the CPC Political Bureau and Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, that the military stand-off in Ladakh had “eroded strategic trust.”
A year later, such language was notably absent from the Indian readout of the NSA’s discussions with Wang during their talks on the sidelines of a BRICS meeting in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The latest meeting is part of a particularly intense level of engagement between the two countries.
Myanmar refugees in India launch hunger strike over prolonged detention
More than 100 Rohingya Muslims and 30 Chin Christians from Myanmar have been on hunger strike from Monday to protest their indefinite detention at Assam’s Matia transit camp, Tora Agarwala and Sudipto Ganguly report. “Many of them have finished their terms, but are still stuck in detention. They are not criminals, they fled persecution,” a source in touch with the protestors said, adding that 36 of the Rohingya protesters possessed UN refugee cards. According to Mukut Das, as of yesterday ten Rohingya strikers were hospitalised after their health deteriorated.
Harrowing allegations of custodial torture, rape emerge from MP’s Guna
Deva Pardhi was picked up by the police on the day of his wedding in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna in July and allegedly beaten to death. His uncle Gangaram was also picked up and allegedly beaten severely. When the judicial magistrate investigating the allegations asked police for CCTV footage of what happened at the station, they could not offer any, Sukanya Shantha reports, in line with allegations of the duo’s torture at a shack. And here’s the shocker: a senior cop tasked with probing the allegations against his subordinates flippantly said they originally planned on staging an encounter against Deva and Gangaram but ended up not doing it because of concerns surrounding the SC/ST Atrocities Act. The policemen involved have so far only been transferred in the case. “The fact that the Pardhi community is criminalised has given MP Police a free reign to conduct acts of untold cruelty, involving physical torture, alleged murder and rape, and systemic coercion,” writes Shantha.
The Long Cable
Modi government’s narrative building on jobs is just not succeeding
Santosh Mehrotra
There has been a continuing effort by government economists to spread disinformation and misinformation about India’s ‘great’ performance on employment, and the latest is the India KLEMS report claim that employment grew by 8 crore (80 million) between 2020-21 and 2022-23 – the years of Covid! Dutifully, the SBI Chief Economist echoed these claims; the Prime Minister did the same. Since the government and its favourite economists live in an echo chamber.
However, several questions arose about this claim. How come India saw an increase in employment during Covid, just when the ILO said East and S-E Asia saw employment stagnate? Second, the Periodic Labour Force Survey shows an increase of only 3 crore (30 million) in employment over that period (54 to 57 crore); so how come KLEMS is claiming 8 crore? Third, the fact is that KLEMS uses a flawed methodology to get to the 8 crore employment number. To arrive at an absolute number, one has to apply the PLFS ratios to a multiplier to arrive at employment in the total population. No actual population estimate exists since 2011, as Ramkumar/Mohanan point out. So using data from different sources for projecting PLFS ratios, KLEMS researchers apply two different sources for the years for which they arrive at the multiplier (Economic Survey & MOHFW projects). We have no idea why they don’t use the same source. Worse, both sources ignore the sharp fall in fertility rates since 2011. Hence, KLEMS arrives at an exaggerated number for jobs created, because their multiplier is wrong.
Tragically, KLEMS researchers ignored the fact that PLFS shows that the employment structure has changed sharply for the last decade. A positive structural change was underway since 2003 in India (with agriculture workers falling in absolute terms for the first time in India’s post independence history). The manufacturing share was increasing. And manufacturing’s contribution to Gross Value Added was stable at between 16-17%. Unfortunately, the government’s policy-induced shocks to the economy have caused manufacturing jobs to collapse for five years after 2016. The share of manufacturing in GVA fell to 13% for the same five years, before recently recovering.
Another KLEMS claim of rising jobs is founded on the premise of a rising female labour force participation rate (LFPR). That too ignores the fact that the LFPR of women rises in agriculture mainly due to a rise in Unpaid Family Labour (UFL). UFL rose from 1999 to 2004 from 77 million to 100 million; then fell every year, as non farm jobs grew rapidly, until 2013; and then fell to 55 million by 2018-19. But thanks to the Covid lockdown shock at four hours’ notice, 60 million workers were added to agriculture, including millions of women as UFL (actually 40 million in rural areas). The official view is that the rise in female LFPR is partly on account of new livestock production. However, that ignores the reality that animal husbandry, after the rise, is still only 15% of total agriculture employment. Over 70% is still in crop production.
Another favourite theme of government economists is to show that both NDA regimes – Vajpayee and Modi have done better on jobs than the UPA of Manmohan Singh. That comparison does not hold up to closer scrutiny for either NDA regime. It is said, for example, that the period 1999-2000 to 2003-4 saw 60 million jobs created, while the UPA hardly created any. This ignores the fact that the Vajpayee years saw an increase of 22 million in farm employment, when the UPA years saw a sharp fall in farm jobs – which to any development economist is a good thing. Second, it is true that the entire period from 2000 to 2012 did see, on average, 7.5 million new non-farm jobs created for a good 12 years – both regimes did well in this regard. However, the third big issue is that agricultural jobs were falling in absolute terms after 2004 – and the opposite happened during NDA governments. In other words, when government economists claim total jobs grew under the NDA and grew slowly under the UPA, they are ignoring the reversal of structural change during both the Vajpayee and Modi regimes. They also ignore the fact that both periods saw an increase of non-farm jobs to the tune of 7.5 million per annum, as we saw between 2000-2012.
Besides, while the official unemployment rate was only 2% during 2004 to 2012, it shot up to 6.1 % by 2017-18, the highest rate in India in 45 years. Also, government economists forget that since non-farm jobs were growing rapidly under the UPA, real wages rose, as workers leaving agriculture for non-farm jobs meant that rural labour markets tightened. However, if employment in agriculture rises, as in the Vajpayee and Modi periods, the labour markets is not tight; hence, real wages stagnate, which is what happened from 1999-2004 or between 2016 to 2023.
Yet another fact ignored by ‘bhakt’ economists is the following. The Annual Survey of Unorganized Enterprises (ASUSE), released recently for 2021-22 and 2022-23, helps us to compare the normal period in the Indian economy from 2010-11 to 2015-16, with unorganized sector enterprise performance over 2016 to 2023. Thus, the government narrative about the loss of jobs in the unorganized sector is the following. Jobs fell mainly due to the second Covid delta wave in 2022, then recovered massively in 2022-23. This again neglects three crucial facts. First, a comparison of the data for enterprises/jobs for the period 2010-11 to 2015-16 (these were the previous ASUSE conducted by NSO), with the period between 2015-16 and 2022-23, tells us that while 6 million units were created in the first half of the last decade, the potential units lost over the recent (Modi) shocks to the unorganized sector were 5 million potential units NOT created. Second, two million actual jobs were lost in the recent period, while jobs were being created in the earlier period; as a result, some 8 million potential new jobs could have been created in the recent period, which were not – due to demonetization, GST and the Covid lockdowns. And finally, the hired workers establishments fell in number in the recent period, while they were growing in the earlier period.
Why were these developments occurring? The foundational reason lies in the slower growth rate in the Modi regime of 5.8% p.a. over 10 years, versus 7.8% p.a. over 2004-14. This happened as all four drivers of growth were not firing in the last 10 years.
• Private Consumption, the first growth driver, has seen tepid growth, at half the rate of the GDP growth. Consumption was maintained by cuts in household savings, down from 24% to 17% of GDP, before recovering. It has risen slightly, but at the cost of retail debts rising. Private consumption expenditure of upper/middle classes cannot compensate for the rest of the economy. Non-farm jobs are growing, but slower, much slower than needed. The unorganised sector has barely recovered, which gives us a K-shaped recovery, meaning low private consumption.
• Gross Fixed Capital Formation i.e. investment – the second driver – has been 26-31% of GDP over 2014-24. But from 2004-14 it was 31-38% of GDP; recent public investment can’t compensate for low private investment, as capacity utilization remains less than 75% most sectors; MSME investment is also not rising.
• Exports is the third driver of growth. Goods exports as a percentage of GDP rose from 10% to 25% /GDP between 1991-2008. But it was lower for four years after 2015 than it was in 2013-14. Services exports can offset this fall, but there are limits (with de-globalisation).
• The Fourth Driver is government investment/revenue expenditure. This can be raised but where is the fiscal space? Debt/GDP has risen sharply from 58% to 82%, leaving limited funds – and less space for discretionary spending by government.
No wonder non-farm jobs have grown at a slower pace in the past 10 years, than they were growing between 2004-14.
(Santosh Mehrotra was professor of economics at JNU till 2020.)
Reportedly
Purva Misra, NDTV’s new ‘chief people officer’, happens to be the daughter of a former trusted lieutenant of Modi’s and currently chair of the Ayodhya Ram Temple’s management trust, Nripendra Misra. She is also married to an IAS officer serving as an additional secretary in the home ministry, Dilip Cherian points out. A complete circle for Modisation of NDTV.
Deep dive
Tony Joseph wrote a book a few years ago cutting through the layers of ignorance and misinformation embedded in right-wing narratives on the Indus valley civilisation and the place of Aryan migration in Indian history. Here, he picks apart Godi media anchor Rahul Shivshankar for recycling an old canard as breaking news based on a misreading of information that has been in the public domain for several years already. Wade into it here.
Prime number: 45
Forty five Indians who joined the Russian army and fought for them on the battle fronts against Ukraine have been rescued from the war zone and discharged from the Russian military, as per the Ministry of External Affairs. However, there are fifty more Indian nationals still on battlefields in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Opeds you don’t want to miss
Who is actually in command in Manipur, asks Pratap Bhanu Mehta? “The scale of our indifference to Manipur bears calling out. The BJP’s behaviour over the crisis is shockingly bizarre”.
Even as a student, Sitaram Yechury’s talent as a leader who built bridges was evident. Gyan Prakash on his JNU contemporary who was “quick to laugh”, with an easygoing style that “made him a friend to many”.
PM Modi and CJI Chandrachud’s public display of faith is troubling because “it betrays their oaths of office and undermines constitutional assurances”, writes Indira Jaisingh. She poses six questions which need answers: “One, at whose invitation did the PM go to the CJI’s residence? Two, why were other constitutional functionaries not present? Were they invited? Three, in the two-year tenure of the CJI, how many times has he met the PM for social and/or religious functions in private? Four, why was a private religious ritual used for a photo-op? Five, was the symbolism of the Maharashtrian topi lost on the CJI given that the Maharashtra elections are coming up? Six, given this overt display of Hindu symbols, hymns and rituals, can non-Hindu litigants expect impartial justice from the CJI?”
Government apathy and deforestation are endangering the Western Ghats, putting lives and ecological security at grave risk, writes BK Singh.
“When the agitation against the Agnipath recruitment reached a crescendo in Uttar Pradesh and public buses and other government property were destroyed in many cities of the state, Yogi did not order bulldozers to respond,” writes Julio Ribeiro on why the Supreme Court needs to curb this illegal form of punishment. “He reserved that usage to deal with crimes, even petty ones, committed by Muslims.”
Kapil Komireddi twists the knife into Rahul Gandhi for his comments in the US that Sikhs in India are an endangered minority.
The communist leader Sitaram Yechury, who died yesterday, was also an outstanding parliamentarian. This speech of his from 2017 on the government’s responsibility to stop mob lynchings by ‘gau rakshaks’ is as relevant today as it was then.
Verraiah Konduri, who was associated with Sitaram Yechury for more than two decades in various capacities, including as a political secretary, recalls his comrade.
Listen up
In the latest episode of the Empire podcast, William Dalrymple and Anita Anand look at what is the truth of Angkor Wat’s origins. “And how much does it owe to the example of India?”
Watch out
It was “absolutely unforgivable” for Chief Justice DY Chandrachud to invite the Prime Minister for a puja before the cameras as “it undermined integrity of Supreme Court” and it will “forever be a stain on his personal reputation”, says historian Ramchandra Guha in an interview with Karan Thapar.
Over and out
The godi media has taken its hunt for ratings to the next level. We know that arguments can sometimes break out between studio guests, especially when many of them are chosen for their ability to be provocative. But Times Now has taken things to the next level today, allowing a fight between right-wing commentator Anand Ranganathan and journalist Ashutosh to get out of hand and then broadcasting the studio fracas as an exclusive for its audiences.
With barely a month left until the 10-day-long Durga Puja begins, the auspicious festival is most likely to put a big hole in the pockets of ordinary Bengalis. This is because the Yunus-led interim government in Bangladesh has banned the export of hilsa (ilish) fish to India. Meanwhile, fish importers in West Bengal have written to Touhid Hossain, an advisor to the Bangladesh government, with an appeal to reconsider the decision before Durga Puja. Soutik Biswas of the BBC reports on this ‘Fish diplomacy’ setback for India and Bangladesh. While “other domestic sources of ilish do exist… no self-respecting Bengali would eat that,” sniffs one Kolkata resident to The Economist. Bangladesh’s ban may finally tip the scales, it notes.
“We knew we wanted a traditional Hindu ceremony,” the New York Times quotes Chetan Jhaveri as saying about his plans to marry Yuvaram Reddy. “I realized it can’t be too traditional since we’re gay.” Rosalie R. Radomsky reports on a wedding that broke barriers in the Indian American community. And which would be impossible to do in India.
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.