Malegaon, Damoh Principals Booked for Islamic Prayer, Iqbal Poem as Bidar School's Sedition Case is Quashed; Modi Missing in Manipur But Ethnic Power Sharing a Solution

Dodgy Himachal pharmas hard to keep down, curbs on IAS study leave, rash of forest fires in Uttarakhand, the Sunderbans vulnerable to child trafficking, Raag Bhairavi has reached interstellar space

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia and Tanweer Alam | With inputs from Kalrav Joshi | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal

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Snapshot of the day

June 14, 2023 

Despite efforts for peace, a gunfight has been running for two days in the foothills in the region of Imphal, where the hills meet the valley. Nine are reported dead and 10 injured. And surprisingly, a column of the Assam Rifles has been held up at a rebels’ roadblock on NH2 for a fortnight. Their supplies are running out and they suffer the indignity of being frisked and searched by rebels. Beleaguered Manipuris have put out a missing persons alert.

Poster in Manipur. Photo: Twitter/@ashoswai

Sushant Singh warns that the violence in Manipur could destabilise the entire region, and the situation will play into the hands of China. 

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. This is the first action by the agency against a minister of the MK Stalin government. The Congress puts it down to “political harassment and vendetta” by the Modi government, to intimidate the opposition. Chief Minister Stalin has also called it “intimidation politics”. Balaji was arrested following prolonged questioning. He complained of uneasiness and has been advised bypass surgery at the earliest.

Today, the Karnataka High Court quashed a sedition FIR filed against the management of a school in Bidar in 2020, where students of classes 4, 5 and 6 had staged a play on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens. A complaint by activist Nilesh Rakshala was used as the basis of an FIR accusing the school of “anti-national activities” and “spreading negative opinion” about parliamentary laws.  

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have invited policymakers, journalists and analysts to a screening in Washington of a BBC documentary on Narendra Modi that questions his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, two days ahead of his state visit to the White House. The private screening is scheduled for June 20.

India will lose about 6,500 high net worth individuals ― people with an investable wealth above $1 million ― in 2023, about 1,000 less than the number which flew the coop last year, according to the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report, 2023, which tracks wealth and investment migration trends worldwide. China leads with the expected attrition of 13,500 millionaires, and trailing behind India are prominent nations which have got something dreadfully wrong: the UK (Brexit) and Russia (the unending and unsuccessful invasion of Ukraine). The rich strike camp for a variety of reasons, ranging from personal and financial security to acceptance of crypto. Favourite destinations are nations offering residency visas like Portugal, Canada, Greece and Italy.   

On Tuesday, participating in a panel discussion on the wrestlers’ struggle and accountability of institutions, former Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur slammed the Delhi Police for delaying cases lodged against outgoing Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhusan Sharan Singh and the rough treatment of the protesting wrestlers against whom FIRs were registered. He said a “re-victimisation” of the victims has happened. “The sexual harassment had started much earlier. They made complaints, but there was no complaints committee in the Wrestling Federation.” 

The All India Bank Officers’ Confederation and All India Bank Employees Association oppose the Reserve Bank of India’s RBI’s recent framework for compromise settlements and technical write-offs for wilful loan defaulters. They warn that if consequences become negotiable at the expense of accountability and the principles of natural justice, the banking system could be undermined and eventually collapse. 

In charts, Mint maps India’s progress against that of eight other Asian economies, and it’s a mediocre report card. Per capita income is rising but still the lowest, growth is fast but China and Vietnam grow faster, goods exports have slowed, the contribution of manufacturing to GDP is falling and unemployment is a serious problem. 

A week ago, fearing for the security of his family, a 45-year-old Muslim BJP leader quit his home in Purola, Uttarkashi, for Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand. He laments that his Hindu friends did not try to get him to change his mind and stay, amidst threats to Muslim residents and their businesses. He is district president of the BJP minority cell, reports The Quint. Right wing Hindu outfits, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan, have given a call for the mahapanchayat tomorrow against ‘love jihad’, the fake issue used to trigger unrest. Prohibitory orders have been clamped until June 19. Two letter petitions were submitted to the Supreme Court seeking to prevent the holding of this event but the court said the petitioners must approach the Uttarakahand high court.

Covid-19 vaccination data from the government’s CoWIN portal has been exposed by a Telegram hacking channel, and the protestations of electronics minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar notwithstanding, a breach on this scale in a developed nation, which affected all citizens, would have brought down its government, public interest tech specialist Anivar Aravind tells Scroll.   

Indian historian Ramachandra Guha’s book Rebels Against the Raj: Western Fighters for India’s Freedom which covers English and European people who fought against the British Raj and for Indian Independence, has won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Fiction.