Nonprofit Bloodbath More Serious than Much-Analysed Unicorn Morbidity; On the India-China Border, Disengagement is Not Resolution

Killer syrup in Uzbekistan cleared by bribery, courts mind language, farm laws triggered by Adani lobbying, Ashoka Univ faces blowback, Vikram leaves Chandrayaan behind, burgers & subs tomato-mukt

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 and Anirudh SK | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal

---

Snapshot of the day

August 17, 2023

Pratik Kanjilal

Uzbekistan has put on trial 20 nationals and an Indian, on the charge that distributors of a contaminated cough syrup made in India by Marion Biotech that killed 65 children in Uzbekistan “paid local officials a bribe of $33,000 to skip mandatory testing”, reports Reuters . The toll is much higher than was previously reported.  

“Previously unpublished documents accessed by The Reporters’ Collective now reveal the Adani Group discreetly lobbied with the government in April 2018 for the removal of restrictions on hoarding agricultural commodities. One of the Centre’s three contentious farm laws, enacted two years later, did just that.” Shreegireesh Jalihal’s story has validated the rumour mill ― the farm laws, which triggered unprecedented protests in the National Capital Region, were moved by the Modi government at the behest of his favourite tycoon. At a meeting of the task force set up by Niti Aayog to double farm incomes, a poll promise of the Modi government, Adani’s representatives had said, “The Essential Commodities Act is proving to be a deterrence for industries/entrepreneurs.”

Indicating the importance it accords to forthcoming state polls, the BJP has made public the first list of candidates for Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, even before elections are called. 

Bloomberg reports that the government plans to reallocate $12 billion to address food and fuel inflation ahead of general elections, without affecting the budgetary deficit. It may be recalled that fuel price hikes were put on hold before the last general election. 

“Thanks for the ride, mate!” said Chandrayaan-3 lander as it separated today from the propulsion stage, and launched on its own path to moonfall. 

Railway Protection Force Constable Chetansinh Chaudhary, who shot dead four, including three Muslims in a Jaipur-Mumbai express train, has been dismissed from service. “He killed out of hatred,” the authorities said, and only his departure could prevent the spread of this infectious disease. Chaudhary had also forced a woman in a burqa to recite a Hindutva slogan at gunpoint. Earlier, he had been in trouble three times for harassing a Muslim, using a colleague’s debit card to withdraw cash and assaulting a colleague. 

Cow vigilante Bittu Bajrangi (Raj Kumar in civilian life) was remanded to police custody for a day for questioning in connection with the violence at Nuh. His group, armed with swords and trishuls, had threatened a police contingent led by ASP Usha Kundu. Following his arrest the VHP, which had led the procession which triggered the violence, had distanced itself from him and said that he was never a member of the Bajrang Dal. 

Mobs armed with batons and sticks attacked the Salvation Army Church and the Saint Paul Catholic Church in Jaranwala, Punjab province, Pakistan, setting them ablaze, and also attacked private homes, believing that the Quran had been desecrated. More than 100 have been arrested. The BBC reports that two more churches were torched.

India’s prep city Kota reports the 21st suicide this year by a student preparing for university admission tests. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had a single-point agenda of “denying, distorting, defaming and destroying” the Nehruvian legacy, said the Congress after the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library was officially renamed the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society. “He (Modi) has erased N and put P instead. That P is really for pettiness and peeve,” Jairam Ramesh said.

Babloo Loitongbam, Director of Human Rights Alert, tells Karan Thapar that Amit Shah’s speech in Parliament has made the situation worse in Manipur. The Home Minister had attributed the ethnic violence to the influx of Kukis from Myanmar, which is at best a half-truth.  

Ashoka University remains embroiled in controversy after the resignation of economics teacher Sabyasachi Das, following the publication of a research paper alleging possible electoral manipulation by the BJP in the 2019 general election. The economics department has warned of a faculty exodus over academic freedom. Economist Pulapre Balakrishnan has already resigned and four departments have made demands of the university’s governing body, which is accused of trying to ‘investigate’ Das’s paper, which is pending peer review. Rita Kothari and Amit Chaudhuri have addressed a letter on academic freedom to the university, which is now public. Other departments are also going public with statements.  

The New Delhi Municipal Corporation, which is controlled by the Union government, wants to demolish the 150-year-old Sunehri Bagh mosque in Lutyens’ Delhi claiming it is obstructs traffic and poses a threat to high ranking government officials and foreign visitors. The claim is laughable and is now being considered by the Delhi high court.