Manipur HC Order for ST Status to Meiteis ‘Completely Factually’ Wrong: SC; Rahul to Address NRIs at Madison Square Garden in June

CBI raids locations linked to Malik aides, SEBI told to give Adani probe status by Aug 14, Quad summit cancelled, why BJP won’t give up Hindutva, Kerala Story vs Afwaah

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

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Snapshot of the day

May 17, 2023

Vinay Pandey

The oath-taking ceremony for the new Karnataka chief minister is scheduled for Thursday, but till 6 pm on Wednesday, the Congress was yet to announce who the chief minister will be. The two contenders, former chief minister Siddaramaiah and PCC chief DK Shivakumar, met Rahul Gandhi at his residence in Delhi. On Tuesday, both the aspirants had met party president Mallikarjun Kharge. Shivakumar, according to some reports, is not prepared to be deputy chief minister.

The Supreme Court pulled up the Manipur high court on Wednesday for its recent order that had asked for the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes list. The order had triggered violent clashes between tribal and non-tribal communities in the state early this month. “We have to stay the order of the Manipur HC. It is completely factually wrong and we gave time to Justice Muralidharan to remedy his error and he did not … we have to take a strong view against it now,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, according to Bar & Bench. The court, however, did not impose any stay. The court also asked the Manipur government to file a fresh report on relief and rehabilitation efforts.

Also, the Supreme Court on Wednesday granted market regulator SEBI time till August 14 to provide a status report on its probe into the allegations made by the Hindenburg Research report on the Adani Group. The US short seller’s report had accused the Adani Group of corporate fraud and stock manipulation and triggered a crisis, wiping out $100 billion from the group’s market value. A bench of Chief Justice Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala passed the order after SEBI sought an additional six months to investigate the dealings of the conglomerate, reasoning that they were “highly complex”. The Court recorded that the expert committee has submitted its report and the case was adjourned to be heard after the summer recess.

In another important development, the apex court granted anticipatory bail to Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas BV in a case registered against him in Assam for allegedly outraging the modesty of a former Congress worker. A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Sanjay Karol avoided going into details of the arguments during the anticipatory bail stage.

The Quad summit scheduled for May 24 in Sydney has been cancelled following US President Joe Biden’s decision not to go ahead with a planned trip to Australia because of stalled domestic debt ceiling negotiations. Instead, the Quad nations are expected to have a sideline meeting at the G7 summit in Hiroshima this weekend, with all four leaders still attending.

The external affairs ministry said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Modi will travel to Japan, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. From May 19 to May 21, Modi will be in Hiroshima, Japan, for the G7 conference, where addressing Russia's efforts to circumvent sanctions will be a major topic of discussion for the western economies. India is likely to face criticism from the G7 leaders.

Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to address a rally of NRIs at Madison Square Garden in New York on June 4. This will be part of a 10-day US visit by the Congress leader beginning May 31. Gandhi Rahul Gandhi will visit Washington and California and is also expected to address the students of Stanford University. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to be on a state visit to the US from June 21 to 24.

India has rejected the US state department’s latest report on International Religious Freedom, which includes a chapter on India. The external affairs ministry said on Tuesday that the report was based on “misinformation” and statements by state department officials were “motivated”. However, the ministry also said that India “values” its partnership with the US and would continue to have “frank exchanges” on the issues involved.

India is under fire from the EU for buying Russian crude oil and selling the refined products made from it to European buyers. The EU also aims to stop its own members from buying these refined products. The EU’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, told the Financial Times: “If diesel or gasoline is entering Europe … coming from India and being produced with Russian oil, that is certainly a circumvention of sanctions and member states have to take measures.” Borrell’s objections came hours before he was slated to meet foreign minister S Jaishankar, who delivered a strong riposte to the EU official’s comments, according to the Telegraph. At a press conference after meeting Borrell, Jaishankar argued that under the EU’s own regulations, “Russian crude, if substantially transformed in a third country, is not treated as Russian anymore.”

The CBI has reportedly raided nine locations, including those linked to two aides of former J&K governor Satya Pal Malik, in connection with a corruption case in the Union territory. The case pertains to alleged irregularities in an insurance scheme involving Reliance General Insurance, owned by Anil Ambani. Speaking to The Wire on Wednesday, Malik said: “What is interesting is that I am the one who has complained, but nothing is being asked of those I have accused of corruption. Only I am being targeted.”

Hindutva identity politics is increasingly playing out overseas and influencing the Indian diaspora. Hindutva organisations, influential diaspora members and social media have played a role in pushing Hindutva beyond India’s borders, which also raises concerns of potential social disharmony in their host countries, Not only India’s communal politics, but even caste politics is playing out overseas.

The Kerala Story contains hate speech and is based on manipulated facts that can lead to communal disharmony and law and order issues, the West Bengal government has told the Supreme Court, reports Bar and Bench. The screening of the film is likely to cause clashes among extremist groups, the government said in its counter-affidavit defending its decision to ban the controversial film in the state to avoid “any incident of hatred and violence”.

VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi delivered a hateful speech against Muslims inside a cinema hall in Rajasthan where The Kerala Story was being screened.

Last week, a video of a young couple kissing on a Delhi metro train sparked a row after it went viral on social media. The video and the criticism it received online have triggered a fierce debate around moral policing and public obscenity in the country.