Magnitsky Plea Filed Against 11 Including Nirmala Sitharaman, Sanjay Kumar Mishra Over Devas; BJP Playing Capture The Flag On Independence Day
Corporate tax breaks cost Rs 1.84 lakh crore, Pakistan raps Modi for ‘Horrors Day’, Karnataka Anti Corruption Bureau abolished, Urban Affairs minister talks rubbish about waste disposal
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
Pratik Kanjilal
US NGO Frontiers of Freedom has filed a petition under the US Magnitsky Act naming Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Enforcement Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Antrix Corporation Chairman Rakesh Sasibhushan among 11 “perpetrators”. Sanctions including denial of visas and freezing of assets are sought against these Indian officials for attempting to misusing Indian and international law to press “bogus charges of money laundering” against former Devas chief Ramachandran Vishwanathan, a US citizen, and for moving to extradite him and confiscate his properties in India and the US.
These are referred to as “retaliatory actions” to harass him and prevent him from travelling to enforce the collection of $1.2 billion awarded to Devas as compensation for ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix arbitrarily cancelling a satellite deal for internet and multimedia services. The plea also speaks of “arbitrary detentions of individuals to extract coerced statements, improper seizures of assets and records, and corruption and manipulation of India’s investigative agencies and courts.” Just over a week ago, the Supreme Court confirmed the extraordinary powers accorded to the ED by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Officially, the Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI) does not exist anymore since there is no official order extending its existence beyond June 30. Its staff have not been given an extension either, but these ‘ghosts’ have registered over 1,060 clinical trials from July 1 till August 5. Paradoxically, clinical trials are crucial for vaccine development. The CTRI is a publicly accessible online repository of data from more than 45,000 registered clinical trials maintained by some data entry operators, scientists and statisticians. Started as a three-year pilot project in 2007, it has been running on extensions ever since in the National Institute of Medical Statistics (NIMS), though the Drug Controller General of India made registration of all clinical trials mandatory in 2009 and a 2013 amendment to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, backed it up. CTRI employees have approached the Delhi High Court to have the registry made a permanent feature of NIMS.
“Covid-19 has hurt young people more than any other age group, according to the Global Employment Trends for Youth 2022 report released by the International Labour Organisation.
India experienced severe working-hour and employment losses in 2020 and 2021, and Indian youth employment deteriorated in 2021 compared to 2020. The recovery in youth employment still lags globally, and the report confirms that Covid-19 has hurt young people most, adding to labour market challenges facing those aged 15-24.
The central exchequer has lost tax revenue worth nearly Rs 1.84 lakh crore in two financial years due to lower rates of corporate tax announced by the government. The estimated shortfall was Rs 87,835 crore in 2019-20 and 96,400 crore in 2020-21, noted a parliamentary panel report. The figures for 2021-22 have not been revealed but are estimated to be over Rs 1 lakh crore.
Construction of highways slowed to 2,493 kms in April-July, lower than even the 2,927 kms built during the peak of the second wave of the pandemic last year, according to the government. Only 1,975 km of roads were awarded in April- July, much less than 2,434 kms a year earlier.
Since 2017, the number of registered foreign companies increased 11.4% to 5,035. Active foreign companies dropped by 1.5% in the same period to 3,311 ― more companies have been registered, but fewer are active. Harley Davidson, General Motors and Ford exited. Cement-maker Holcim sold its India business and Citibank exited retail operations. Net FDI fell 12.2% year-on-year to $38.6 billion in 2021-22 but remained higher than the 2018-19 figure of $30.7 billion.
India remains in deep denial of the Chinese intrusion, hoping that it’ll go away, but a new exhibition by the China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Beijing’s Military Museum, which President Xi Jinping visited last month, has highlighted the 1962 war and the Galwan Valley clashes, and blamed India for both. The sprawling exhibition in Beijing showcases 95 years of the PLA’s history, particularly the Xi era.
China yesterday thwarted a joint India-US bid to list Jaish-e-Mohammed ( JeM) deputy chief Rauf Asghar as a UN Security Council designated terrorist by placing a “technical hold” on the process, a move Indian Foreign Ministry sources called “politically motivated” and evidence of China’s “doublespeak” on Pakistan-based terrorism.
Sri Lanka’s Newsfirst.lk reports that the harbour master of Hambantota Port says that the Yuan Wang 5, a ballistic missile and satellite tracking ship in China’s research vessel fleet, will not dock. The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry has already requested China to defer the arrival of the Yuan Wang 5 but there is no announcement on whether it would be allowed to enter the port. India had made its concerns clear and the Chinese dismissed the pressure on Sri Lanka as absurd.
Four soldiers, including a junior commissioned officer, were killed and two more injured yesterday in a “fidayeen” attack in which two militants tried to storm an army camp at Pargal in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district. They were believed to be from the banned JeM and were shot. This is the first such attack since 2018, when three Jaish militants attacked an army camp at Sunjuwan in Jammu in a similar pre-dawn fidayeen (suicide) attack, killing six soldiers and a civilian.
Five startups — PayTM Mall, Snapdeal, Hike, Shopclues and Quikr — are no longer unicorns, with their valuation falling below $1 billion. The unicorn count is down to 103, and the valuation of 12 ― including Vedantu, Nobroker, Blackbuck and Slice ― stagnates at $1 billion. While most entered the club in 2021-2022, InMobi turned unicorn in 2011, 11 years ago.
Does Google have a caste bias, carried overseas by Indians? The New Yorker has interviewed Tanuja Gupta, former senior manager at Google News, about a talk about bigotry which was cancelled amid accusations of reverse discrimination. Whom was the company trying to protect?
The Supreme Court, which had waded into the “freebie” controversy, tried to bail out yesterday. It said “a balance has to be struck between the economy losing money due to freebies and welfare measures undertaken by governments, as they are two different things.” The apex court has thrown out a plea for de-registration of political parties for promising freebies as “undemocratic”. The tenure of the current Chief Justice of India ends on the August 26, but pleas concerning electoral bonds, CAA and Kashmir remain unheard.
Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore recently claimed that seven Indian states process more than 90% of their solid waste and the whole country processes 73%. But a fact-check has found otherwise. The data from the Central Pollution Control Board reveal that almost 26% of solid waste generated in India is unaccounted for and 27% ends up in landfills. Garbage is often not even segregated, let alone processed.
An analysis has found that Madhya Pradesh is home to India’s largest population of indigenous peoples and they have electoral heft. But it is also the state with the highest number of rape cases involving tribal women.
Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor is to be conferred with France’s highest civilian award, the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, for his writings and speeches.
Social media accounts of the BJP and its leaders have changed their DPs for Independence Day but some accounts are conspicuous by the absence of the Tricolour — those of the RSS, its Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and Sarkaryavah (general secretary) Dattatreya Hosabale. The Opposition has used the opportunity to highlight the adversarial relationship the RSS has had with the national flag.
Indian American entrepreneur Sri Thanedar won last week’s Democratic Party’s primary from the Congressional district of Detroit, and political pundits say it all but assures him of victory in the November midterm elections. Thanedar, 67, won his party’s nomination in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District on August 2, against eight other high-profile candidates. He travelled to the US from Belagavi, Karnataka, in 1979 to obtain his PhD in polymer chemistry from the University of Akron.
Bashir Ahmad Mir from J&K’s Tangmarg is deaf-mute, but he expresses himself beautifully through his art.
Pakistan raps Modi for Horrors Day
Pakistan has rapped the Modi government for marking August 14, its independence day, as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.’ The Pakistani Foreign office said: “True to its characteristic revisionist agenda, the BJP-RSS led dispensation has again sought to hypocritically and one-sidedly invoke the tragic events and mass migration that occurred in the wake of Independence in 1947. It is deplorable that the BJP government, as part of its divisive political agenda, is wantonly attempting to play with the sentiments of the people through distorted interpretation of history. If the Indian leaders genuinely care about agony, suffering and pain, they must work to improve the conditions of the Muslims and other minorities in India… The Government of India is advised to desist from politicising the events related to Independence and instead sincerely honour the memories of all those who sacrificed for a better future for all.”
Withdrawal symptoms in UP
Adityanath’s BJP government in UP is contemplating the withdrawal of criminal cases against ministers and BJP MLAs and MLCs. In recent months and especially days, UP ministers have been blindsided by the law. One who was convicted fled with the case file. Deccan Herald says the process of withdrawal of criminal cases could be initiated soon, after consultation with the Law Department. “Only politically motivated cases will be withdrawn… many of the cases against ministers and party legislators were lodged during the governments of the Opposition parties,'” said a senior BJP leader. Of the 52 ministers in the UP cabinet, 22 face criminal proceedings.
Opposition pushback against central agencies
Sections of the Opposition are pushing back to pressure from central agencies, especially the Enforcement Directorate, which has been encouraged by the Supreme Court’s support for draconian powers accorded to it by the Modi government. CPI(M)’s Thomas Isaac has been vocal about ED summons to him and has gone to court. He said yesterday, after his writ petition was heard: “What is the offence that I have committed under FEMA? ED clarifies in court that I am not accused or suspect at this stage. Then why demand a long list of documents and data roving into my privacy in the summons? ED seeks time for clarification. Truly, Modi time is our Kafka moment.”
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav has also asked the ED, CBI, IT and other central agencies to come stay with his family, to save themselves the trouble of striking aggressive postures sporadically.
In Karnataka, corruption cases back in Lokayukta’s hands
In a major setback to the BJP state government, the High Court of Karnataka has abolished the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), which was established under the direct control of the chief minister in 2016. Now, as before, public servants with dubious dealings will be investigated by the Karnataka Lokayukta police wing under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. All the pending inquiries, investigations and prosecution by the ACB got transferred to the Lokayukta police wing for further action.
The Long Cable
BJP playing Capture the Flag on Independence Day
Pratik Kanjilal
Every year, the days leading up to August 15 bring good business to the most marginal retailers ― the street vendors who sell national flags at the stop lights. This year, they have competition from the Union government, which has shipped flags in huge numbers, to be sold via post offices. The flags sold at stop lights used to be unpretentious little plastic rectangles with a drinking straw for a flagstaff ― just a little something to stick on your car dashboard or bike mirror. Now, since flying the flag is elevated to state policy, flag-buying is a form of conspicuous consumption. The flags are bigger, taller, more imposing.
However, contemporary homes are no longer equipped with the tackle for flag-flying. Perhaps because, as a financially confident nation emerged after liberalisation, it was assumed that there was no further need for symbolism. But Art Deco homes built in the period after World War I in Calcutta, for instance, anticipated Independence with a gigantic flagpole baked in by the architect, rising from the top floor. On August 15, the paterfamilias unfurled his flag, and the neighbourhood bore witness to his commitment to the national project. But should the Indian government feel the need for this symbolic assertion of unity and purpose 75 years after, when more tangible evidence of national confidence should have emerged?
The trouble with flags is that historically, everybody had one. Kingdoms, princely states, guilds, regiments, faiths, sects ― everyone has some allegiance with a group that once flew a flag. In the US, which has a more liberal attitude to flags, it’s legal to fly the Confederate flag on private property. Flying the flag is read as free speech, protected by the First Amendment. In the southern states, they stretch the freedom just a bit, and plant small, unassertive Confederate flags just inches beyond their property ― outside their gates, for instance. But until 2015, a southern flag flew on the grounds of the South Carolina legislature.
In India, following the Har Ghar Tiranga project, Simranjeet Singh Mann has urged Punjab to fly Sikh flags on Independence Day. The Naga peace talks are becalmed because the Union of India will not recognise their flag. Not so long ago, Khalistan had a flag ready to be raised. If the government makes flying the flag a forced display of national unity, it may urge those who are uncomfortable about homogenisation to assert their other identities. It’s all right to have them, in a culturally and ethnically diverse nation, so long as national allegiance remains supreme. That balance mustn’t be upset.
Forceful inclusion projects raise fears of covert exclusion. In pointless interventions early in the pandemic, PM Modi had called for thali-banging and later, a nine-minute home blackout, illuminated only by a clay lamp or the torch of a mobile phone. Naturally, many were disinterested in participating in these son et lumière shows, but going by messenger chitchat, they feared that abstentions would be noted, and perhaps ticked off against a voters’ list.
Depending on how many flags have been sold, whether by the government or the vendors at the stop lights, Har Ghar Tiranga could raise similar anxieties. Will homes which fly the flag stand out, or those which don’t? Either way, the exercise will highlight yet another divide in a society which badly needs unity, at least on Independence Day.
Reportedly
Judges are forcing us to get judgemental. Justice Pratibha M Singh is now batting for Manusmriti. She said at an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI): “I really think we are a blessed lot of women in India and the reason for that is our scriptures have always given a very respectable position for women and as Manusmriti itself says that if you don’t respect and honour women, all the pooja path that you may do has no meaning.” As a lawyer remarked, it’s a puzzling change from last year, when Justice Pratibha Singh was pushing women lawyers to defy convention and move ahead. Is this some kind of cusp moment, a good time to be seen praising Hindu scripture?
Prime Number: 19 croreIn an astounding calculation by Newslaundry, in a scheme for loans for higher education, the Delhi government gave loans of Rs 10 lakh each to two students. But Rs 19 crore was spent on advertising about it.
Deep Dive
As Justice UU Lalit prepares to assume office as Chief Justice of India, The Wire has the lowdown on his career.
Opeds you don’t want to miss
Will India, a federation of states, hold together and thrive as a robust democracy if it becomes a formal Hindu Rashtra, asks Capt GR Gopinath.
Lt Gen HS Panag (retd) writes that unless the politico-military culture of building false narratives to exaggerate minor successes and cover up failures changes, India will remain saddled with a glorified but distorted version of its military history.
Indians need to acknowledge that as a sovereign nation, Sri Lanka, like other South Asian neighbours, has the freedom to choose its friends. If they have confused it with a quid pro quo for India’s willingness to rush aid to a nation in financial crisis, it’s not Sri Lanka’s mistake, writes N Sathiya Moorthy.
TCA Raghavan tracks similarities in how empires retreat. The first anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan coincides with the 75th anniversary of decolonisation in South Asia.
Bharat Bhushan asks if Bihar will curb the BJP’s arrogance.
India’s new climate targets make no mention of some of the commitments made to the world in Glasgow, writes Joydeep Gupta.
‘Indians never invaded anyone’ is a myth. Guptas, Cholas, Lalitaditya Muktapida were conquerors. Medieval Indians were no different in their appetite for conquest than any other polity, writes Anirudh Kanisetti.
Lame excuses have led to a bizarre situation ― nobody’s claiming parentage of India’s largest crypto bourse. Letting the ED add its own chilling effect to India’s crypto winter risks making this industry shrivel and die, writes Andy Mukherjee.
As the quest for Independence gained resolve, it had a big impact on advertising and brands started amplifying the ‘buy Indian’ message of Swadeshi, writes Manisha Kapoor.
Shreya Ila Anusuya writes on Umrao Jaan Ada, Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa’s novel, which “burst onto the Urdu literary scene as the 19th century was fading out.”
Tobby Simon asks if the tantalising prospect of a British PM with Indian roots is now vaporising?
Listen up
The BBC on Mahatma Gandhi’s life, politics and ideas. Tridip Suhrud, Anil Nauriya and Karuna Mantena try to explain “how a shy, mediocre schoolboy went on to shake the British Empire and inspire the world.”
Watch out
For those who cannot make it to Kolkata for the exhibition at the Kolkata Maritime Museum, March to Freedom, some of the displays are online ― reflections “on India’s Independence on its Seventy-Fifth Anniversary”.
Over and out
India’s answer to MAD magazine, Diwana, a bilingual weekly published from 1964 to 1986, featured “some of India’s finest comic strip artists and reflected the zeitgeist.” But it is sadly forgotten.
“I took off as Bihar’s industry minister, when I landed I wasn’t,” BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain told the media on his return from Delhi after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar exited the NDA.
Watch the trailer of Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies, which dropped yesterday.
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