No Paywall Day: Taking Stock of the Modi Cult; Shrinking Workforce in IT Sector; Reservation Politics in Maharashtra
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A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK
Snapshot of the day
January 12, 2023
Siddharth Varadarajan
India's ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, is set to return to Delhi at the end of January but his tenure is ending so at a time of uncertainty: both nations are headed towards elections and a foiled assassination plot has cast its shadow on the bilateral relationship. Sandhu was sent to DC in early 2020 and handled the last year of Donald Trump’s tumultuous term followed by three years of Joe Biden. A 1988 batch IFS officer, he was due to retire in January 2023 but received a one-year extension.
In yet another not-so-surprising turn of events, the Supreme Court Collegium has succumbed to the Union Government’s pressure, agreeing to reevaluate advocate Pranav S Trivedi’s appointment as a judge in the Gujarat High Court. Trivedi’s name was first suggested by the Gujarat HC collegium in September 2022 but the Supreme Court collegium returned the nomination to the High Court. Now, the SC Collegium, which is led by CJI D Y Chandrachud, has reversed its own decision to defer Trivedi’s elevation. However it is too much to ask for the reasons behind this U-turn from the Collegium in a transparent democracy like ours?
The killings in Manipur – and silence from Modi and Shah – continue unabated after more than eight months. On Thursday, three persons who went collecting firewood the previous evening were found dead in Churachandpur — a day after four others from Akasoi in Bishnupur went missing. The violence has claimed a heavy toll on the lives and livelihood of the Kuki-Zo minority ethnic community and also made the Meiteis insecure but the double engine state government continues in power completely unscathed by any political impositions from Modi.
It is just not Manipur. Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Pande yesterday rued “lack of human intelligence” as one of the key factors crippling the force’s anti-terror operations in the Rajouri-Poonch area of Jammu and Kashmir, which saw multiple terror attacks and infiltration attempts leading to death of 20 security men in the last one year. “Since human intelligence and support of the local community are extremely important for successful execution of counter-terrorism operations, there is a clear focus to strengthen such activities,” General Pande said, adding that actions would be needed to ensure that locals didn’t feel alienated. Alluding to last month’s tragedy at Topa Peer village in Poonch district in which three civilians died in army custody after torture, he said the village was adopted by the Indian Army as the forces recognised the importance of support of the local community.
General Pande declined to comment on his predecessor’s remarks that the armed forces had been “taken by surprise” regarding the Agnipath scheme. Launched in June 2022, the scheme is aimed at short-term recruitment of soldiers, sailors and airmen for a four-year period. Agnipath had taken the Army “by surprise” while it was a “bolt out of the blue” for the Navy and Air Force, Pande’s predecessor, Gen. Manoj Mukund Naravane has written in his upcoming memoir, Four Stars of Destiny. “It would be unfair for me to say anything on that,” Gen Pande said, when asked about Gen. Naravane’s observations, adding, “From here on, we need to move forward.”
Scores of youths protested against the Modi government at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Thursday demanding recruitment of those selected in the defence forces prior to the Agnipath scheme's introduction. The protest was held under the banner of the AICC ex-servicemen department. “We have decided if the Congress government comes to power in 2024, we will cancel this scheme at the earliest, ensuring jobs in the force to these 1.5 lakh youth,” head of the ex-servicemen department of the AICC, Colonel (Retd.) Rohit Chaudhry said during the protest.
Shishir Gupta, seen by many to be the mouthpiece of the security-intelligence establishment in the current regime, claims that “a section of the Indian national security apparatus believes that West is playing the Khalistani card to pressurise India now that the Kashmir card is no longer tenable after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A”. He further adds, “That garrulous Pannun is under control of the US enforcement was quite evident when he was nowhere to be seen during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three day trip to New York and Washington in June 2023. After PM Modi’s state visit, Pannun is back to his bombastic self and has been issuing threats to Indian leadership, airports and airlines. Many within the Indian intelligence community wonder whether Pannun is actually a cat’s paw of US federal agencies.”
In a significant departure from conventional practices in the ‘Model’ State, a school in Banaskantha district in Gujarat, has opted to replace the traditional roll-call response of ‘Yes Sir’ with the religious phrase ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Meanwhile, Sambhaji Bhide, the Hindutva leader, accused of instigating the violence in Bhima Koregaon riots is upset with the Ram Temple. Wait for the twist: as the idol of Lord Rama does not have a moustache.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that the magnitude of the scam involving the public distribution system (PDS) in West Bengal was enormous — at least to the tune of “Rs 9,000 - Rs 10,000 crore”. The ED’s press statement said: “The investigation carried out so far indicates that the magnitude of the scam is enormous, and the proceeds of crime received and further transferred and layered by one suspected person itself are suspected to be at least to the tune of Rs 9,000 - 10,000 crore and out of that, Rs 2,000 crore were also suspected to be transferred to Dubai either directly or through Bangladesh.” The alleged scam involving the Food and Supplies Department of the Government of West Bengal resulted in the arrest of State’s Minister Jyoti Priya Mallick on October 27, 2023. However, with the general election right near the horizon, the corruption hurdle has only again added to the embarrassment of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and senior TMC leaders.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress is willing to concede only two seats in West Bengal for its INDIA bloc ally, the Congress, to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Declining to participate in seat-sharing formula talks with the Congress’ National Alliance Committee, the TMC says it has already informed its ally about the “number of seats” it is willing to share and the “methodology” based on which it made the decision. According to The Hindu, a senior Trinamool MP familiar with developments in the alliance said: “We have conveyed the methodology of how it should proceed. We wish the Congress leadership to acknowledge the reality and their limitations in Bengal. We have been very patient and very gracious in spite of many statements flying around.”
There are two profiles today, out on the West Bengal Left’s emerging voice, Meenakshi Mukherjee, something of an icon in the CPI(M)’s new “youth-ward push”. She has been termed as “tenacious, a fighter and gritty.” The latest Brigade ground rally in Kolkata is being seen as a passing of the baton to the next generation.
“At first glance, the swift suspension of the three (Maldivian) ministers looks like a victory for India, its angry social-media warriors and Mr Modi,” says The Economist. “Yet that would be short-sighted—not least because the offending politicians’ comments will have been popular with many Maldivians. As is the case with Nepal and Bhutan to the north-east, the Maldives’ relationship with India has grown more complex over the past decade as China has extended its influence in South Asia.”
The ministers of the Modi government continue with their tall claims without being fact-checked by the Indian media. Railways minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw was heard boasting about “PM Modi’s vision of joining Mumbai and Ahmedabad through the bullet train. The work for 270 km has practically been completed. There is full preparation for the start of the first bullet train in 2026 between Surat and Bilimora”. He forgot that the Modi government had earlier promised that India will have a bullet train service running by August 2022 and that Bilimora is just a quarter of the distance to Mumbai. In 2017, the Railways ministry said “all-out efforts” would be made to complete the high speed rail project by 15 August 2022. In 2019, officials involved with the plan estimated that only a small part of the route will be completed by this time, with the rest finished in 2023.
In any case, Vaishnaw has some serious competition. From a legislator of the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction who said that he would “hang himself” if Modi did not return as Prime Minister after the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Many Afghan refugees in Delhi say it is hard for them to pursue education opportunities for their children in a foreign country, as they do not have documents like visas or passports, or money to pay for school fees. Najib, a middle-aged man with three children, told SCMP that the local UN office in Delhi was unable to help him secure school admissions for his children, but fortunately a church stepped in and supported their education at a private academy. However, he worried that without visas, their career prospects were bleak. “We do not know what their future looks like,” Najib said.
Meanwhile, Britain is “some way off” from moving to recognise the Taliban although officials from both sides speak regularly, according to a Foreign Office minister. Andrew Mitchell said the UK Government has a “pragmatic dialogue” with the Taliban and it needs to keep the pressure on them to change their approach. He also said the Government will keep “very much under review” calls to reopen the UK embassy in Afghanistan, but noted the security and political situation does not currently allow its diplomats to return to Kabul.
Anirudh Kanisetti dives into Indonesia’s Muslim Ramayanas. “A particularly vibrant retelling of the Rama legend appears in an epic called the Hikayat Seri Rama, studied by Prof Singaravelu. It begins with the origin story of Ravana, banished to an island at the age of twelve for bullying his playmates. The Prophet Adam visits him and intercedes with Allah, who then grants Ravana dominion. In some versions, writes Singaravelu, Allah replaces Brahma, and Dasaratha is held to be Adam’s great-grandson, thus integrating Rama into Java’s Islamicate sense of history—no longer a god, but still a figure to be emulated.”
As many as 100 private jets could land on January 22 at the new airport in Ayodhya, according to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath. Business tycoons and political leaders will take chartered flights to the town to attend the consecration ceremony at the temple that has been constructed at the site of a mosque demolished by a Hindutva mob in 1992.
And as Vibrant Gujarat reverberates. Here’s important stuff on the state’s record.
Human Rights Watch Frowns on Indian record
Human Rights Watch says that in 2023, BJP's policies sparked violence and rights abuses in India. “Instead of holding those responsible for abuses to account, the authorities chose to punish the victims, and persecuted anyone who questioned these actions,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch. In the 740-page World Report 2024, its 34th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries.
Indian authorities harassed journalists, activists, and critics through raids, allegations of financial irregularities and use of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, which regulates foreign funding of nongovernmental organisations.
In February, Indian tax officials raided BBC‘s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai in an apparent reprisal for a two-part documentary that highlighted Modi’s failure to provide security for Muslims. The government blocked the BBC documentary in India in January, using emergency powers under the country’s Information Technology Rules. The report listed several events, highlighting discriminatory practices against religious and other minorities.
IT’s Shrinking Workforce
India’s second largest IT services company Infosys says it sees no immediate campus requirement as of now. Infosys saw its headcount shrink by 6,101 for the quarter ending December 31, ending the December quarter with 322,663 employees. The fall made it the fourth consecutive quarter in which the company ended with fewer employees. Infosys’ headcount had shrunk by 7,530 to 3,28,764 employees for the quarter ended September 30, which was the steepest-ever fall in headcount of the company. TCS also trailed Infosys on the employee headcount, declining by 5,680 in the quarter. TCS’ attrition rate has further dropped to 13.3% in the December quarter, down from 14.9%in the previous quarter.
TCS and Infosys lead India’s $245 billion-plus IT services sector, where growth has slowed as enterprise customers in the US and Europe limit investments to cope with high interest rates and inflation. For the fiscal third quarter through December, Bengaluru-based Infosys’ net income fell 7.3% to 61.1 billion rupees ($736 million), meeting analysts expectations. Sales rose 1.3% to 388.2 billion rupees. Mumbai-based TCS reported a net income of 110.6 billion rupees, missing analysts’ estimates.
‘Nari Vandan’
Greater Chennai Police (GCP) Commissioner Sandeep Rai Rathore yesterday said Chennai is the safest city for women in the country as per statistics of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). He inaugurated a renovated ‘Women Police Rest House’ in the city. (The rest house is for the use of women police personnel who come to Chennai from various districts of the State for official work.)
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh ranks the highest, in terms of abuse and insults to women and poor behaviour towards them. Dainik Bhaskar cites the NCRB data.
Afzal Ansari back, but not back
The Lok Sabha has revoked BSP MP Afzal Ansari's disqualification after a Supreme Court order, but he can't attend the House in the forthcoming session. While suspending his sentence in December last year, the apex court had said that Ansari, convicted in a 2007 case, will not be entitled to participate in House proceedings. He shall also not have the right to vote in the Lok Sabha or to draw any perks or monetary benefits. The bench had said that Ansari shall not be disqualified from contesting future elections during the pendency of his criminal appeal before the high court and, if elected, such election will be subject to the outcome of the appeal, reports Deccan Herald.
The Long Cable
Taking stock of the Modi cult
P. Raman
The twenty-first century’s populist dictators are experts in subverting democracy without disturbing its structures. They skillfully distort its provisions in order to establish their control.
Consider how Narendra Modi has been ingeniously using popular beliefs and practices for cult creation. The range and depth of his cult are mind-boggling, to say the least.
Modi’s primary school has become a hallowed ‘prerana sthal’ or site of inspiration where students will be brought from different states on study tours. A Rs 100 coin was struck to mark the 100th episode of Modi’s radio show, Mann Ki Baat.
Then there are Modi colleges and Modi exhibitions.
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar says vishwaguru diplomacy will be taught in universities.
Modi himself flagged off the NaMo Bharat train named after him. A new species of lotus has been named after Modi.
In an unusual move, the Ahmedabad cricket stadium named after Sardar Patel was renamed after Modi, a living politician. And at the Modi Stadium, a son of Modi’s friend presented a photo of Modi to Modi – all under a big publicity glare.
Modi selfie stands are the most visible Modi build-up. In the next few months, you will find selfie points every few kilometres, when the instructions reach BJP-led corporations and civic bodies. They have already spread to railway stations and to universities, where they met with local resistance.
The most alarming trend has been the spread of Modi selfies and other saffron symbols to the hitherto apolitical military establishments.
The defence ministry suggested in an October 2023 letter that 822 geo-tagged selfie points that “may contain” a photo of Modi be installed by the Army, Navy, Air Force and other military organisations in public places across the country.
As per the directive, the order should be executed ”immediately”.
Significantly, last the combined commanders’ conference addressed by Modi was held not in a military camp, but at Bhopal’s Kushabhau Thakre Centre, at whose gate was an imposing Modi portrait. Part of the 2021 conference was held at the Statue of Unity in Gujarat.
Former Army chief Ved Prakash Malik has said the forces should stay away from politics. He decried the attempts to politicise the military and Admiral Arun Prakash said such developments will have a long-term impact on the forces. Officers lower down the pecking order have also spoken out:
Selfie point Command Hospital Pune what a shame. Hospital confirms, spine missing. pic.twitter.com/ld7B5e5ei5
— Col Dinesh Kumar(R) (@kkhushal9) October 22, 2023
But the Modi cult marches on.
‘Traces of God’
A culture of sycophancy is fast catching up to the BJP, as it does with the parties of all dictators. In parliament, during the debate on motion of thanks on the president’s address in 2021, BJP members mentioned Modi 420 times.
Five weeks later, a BJP MP in parliament praised Modi as an avatar of God.
Modi was also likened to an avatar of God by a senior minister in the Yogi Adityanath government in October 2022.
Consider how the avatar theme as an instrument of sycophancy is fast catching within the BJP hierarchy. And the BJP’s national executive took the lead in the flattery:
Like Lord Shiva, Modi bore the opposition’s onslaught on the party and became the ‘supreme and most popular leader of India and the world’, the BJP’s national executive resolution said.
People consider Modi an avatar of Ram and Krishna, said Tirath Singh Rawat while he was Uttarakhand CM. If he was removed within three months, it was due to acute faction fights.
PM Modi is the 11th avatar of Vishnu, BJP MP Avadhut Wagh said, and quoted the Sanskrit verse ‘yada yada hi dharmasya’ (‘Whenever dharma declines, God appears as an avatar to lift the world’).
BJP leader Kamal Patel described Modi as the incarnation of God born to end an “atmosphere of despair”.
PM Modi has “traces of God in him” and he is “superhuman”, said Shivraj Singh Chouhan when he was the Madhya Pradesh CM.
For a change, a Himachal minister hailed Modi as an avatar of Shiva.
In Gujarat, they have started worshipping Modi in gold bars.
Endorsing the avatar role, Modi says: God has chosen me to empower women.
In an unusual move, the Ahmedabad cricket stadium named after Sardar Patel was renamed after Modi, a living politician. And at the Modi Stadium, a son of Modi’s friend presented a photo of Modi to Modi – all under a big publicity glare.
Temples for this avatar
Since Modi is an avatar, there should also be temples where his devotees could offer him prayers and pay their obeisance. And aspiring leaders have raised temples with Narendra Modi as their deity. Here are some of those Modi temples.
Favour-seekers of the BJP in Rajkot built a temple with Modi as its presiding deity and an idol reportedly costing over $3,000. After it got bad publicity abroad, Modi expressed his displeasure. This was in his early days as prime minister.
There is another temple in Kaushambi in Uttar Pradesh where Modi was reportedly worshipped alongside Shiva.
An aspiring BJP leader built a Modi temple in Pune with a poem dedicated to him prominently displayed alongside.
A 100-foot Modi idol on a five-acre plot at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore was reportedly coming up in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.
Like at Jan Aushadhi outlets, there was also a move for Modi portraits to be displayed at PM-GKAY ration shops in BJP-ruled states.
Welfare schemes are another vehicle for the Modi build-up. The names of more than two dozen schemes carry a ‘PM’ prefix, like the PM Awas Yojana and the PM Kisan scheme. Other examples are the PM SVANidhi Scheme, the PM SHRI scheme, the PM Gram Sadak Yojana and the PM MITRA Parks initiative.
(P. Raman is a veteran journalist.)
Reportedly
Infighting within the Karnataka BJP had been brewing for months now and it exploded this week during a meeting convened to discuss the upcoming Lok Sabha polls with Party Leaders opposing the re-nomination of two sitting MPs, one of them being Union Minister Bhagwanth Khuba. Khuba ended up walking out in a huff. Party functionaries reportedly also opposed granting another ticket to Koppal MP Karadi Sanganna for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. However, the BJP State President B Y Vijayendra played down the incident. On Wednesday, the BJP convened a meeting to assess the party’s situation in 13 Lok Sabha segments.
The state of the construction of the Ram temple, which is far from complete, is perhaps the most glaring reason why the consecration planned for January 22 is being viewed by Shankracharyas and non-BJP parties as a political gambit. Meanwhile, pictures from the site, which are emerging, make it hard to believe that it would be completed by January 22. See here or here.
Prime Number: 70%
The percentage of weapons taken away last year from police armouries and stations in Manipur, which have not been recovered so far, Army chief General Manoj Pande said at his annual press conference. More than 5,600 weapons have been taken away from the state armouries, mainly in the state capital, Imphal and are being used by Meitei militia groups.
Deep Dive
Five charts that explain what is going on in Maharashtra with the demand for reservations on the rise. An agrarian and employment crisis, pushing the need to ask for more reservations.
Opeds you don’t want to miss
With Right-wing groups distributing flyers for saffron kurtas to be worn on January 22, Apoorvanand writes on how the colour sported by the CJI when in Gujarat recently has become associated not so much with spirituality as with hatred and violence.
Suhasini Haidar on how “outrage, outrage” on trivial issues is the scourge of new age reporting and needs to be fought.
Corporate-driven industrialisation has failed to create the jobs that India's youth need. We need a different kind of growth, writes Amit Bhaduri in The India Forum.
Disparity in wages drives undocumented immigration, particularly across the US-Mexico border. It is also true that many ‘illegal’ migrants get as low as $5 per hour (much below the federal minimum wage), making them the most exploitative labour force in the US. Abusaleh Shariff on why an exploitative labour regime does not deter rising undocumented migrants in the US.
Seema Mundoli and Harini Nagendra emphasise that the cutting of tens of thousands of trees in Indian urban areas has led to a surge in temperatures, deteriorated air quality, and the loss of heritage and biodiversity. They stress that it is now the responsibility of citizens to curb this destruction.
Kingshuk Nag on how Andhra politics has got stirred. Likely, shaken, too?
Arjun Ramachandran reviews Abraham Ozler — the medical thriller starring Jayaram is a tale of a battered-down cop trying to escape his past demons.
Should Indian and Afghan cricketers be forced to play in the freeezing cold? R Kaushik says the scheduling of a match in Mohali when the temperature is around 9 degrees Celsisus is cruel to players and spectators alike and stems for the BCCI’s inability to create a rational and equitable calendar for match fixtures across the country
Like it or not, Ram and Lakshman did eat meat in the Ramayana, writes Shuddhabhrata Sengupta.
Listen up
The Chinese Whispers podcast asks if India is jealous of China’s rise. It looks at where China and India’s rivalry comes from. How much have long-lasting skirmishes on the China-Indian border damaged relations? How have demographics, economic competition and recent international conflicts affected the relationship between the two countries? And are the domestic politics of China and India in fact more similar than most westerners like to admit?
Watch out
At the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, Gautam Adani spoke for approximately six minutes. Sitting in the first row, Modi is also seen carefully listening. His reference to Modi’s “grand ambition” drew mirth on social media. Watch below.
Over and out
Bull run gets a completely different meaning in the bovine-loving Uttar Pradesh. While waiting patiently in a corner for their turn on Wednesday, customers of a State Bank of India branch in Unnao, were taken aback when an unexpected visitor—a bull—burst into the bank premises, sparking chaos. It wasn’t a Chinese shop either, we have confirmed. Watch it here.
A new exhibition in Singapore will showcase the connections between Asian and African art. Translations: Afro-Asian Poetics, open to the public from next week, will feature work by 100 artists from across both continents and their diasporas. The show aims to celebrate their cultures “by emphasising shared experiences, trials and tribulations, spiritual practices, and more,” according to the curators.
During the renovation of the Bobbarya Daivastana, a temple dedicated to the divine spirit of Bobbarya , a retired professor stumbled upon a Hero Stone (Veeragallu) dating back to the 15th-16th century, adorned with inscriptions and revered as ‘Bobbaryana Kallu’, at Ulthur Kattemance of Kundapur taluk in Udupi. The inscription, engraved on a rectangular stone, features a pictorial representation at top.
That’s it for today. We’ll be back with you next weektomorrow, 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.