Stripped of OCI Card, French Reporter Leaves India After 23 Years; 'End of Democracy': Tax Demand Freezes Congress Bank Account

Why farmers are protesting again, Muslim vendors made vulnerable by payment apps, Meta cuts back on fact-checking WhatsApp disinformation, Kiran Rao on Laapata Ladies, area of darkness comes home

Feb 16, 2024

Snapshot of the day

February 16, 2024

Siddharth Varadarajan

Vanessa Dougnac, a French journalist who has been living and working in India for over two decades as the correspondent for a number of French newspapers, left the country today after she was told by the government that her Overseas Citizenship of India had been rescinded. The Ministry of Home Affairs said that she had worked as a journalist despite her OCI card prohibiting such work without government permission, which she did not have. The fact that the Modi government sees her reporting as ‘anti-India’ was the final nail. Dougnac issued a short statement before leaving:

I am writing these words in tears. Today, I am leaving India, the country where I came 25 years ago as a student, and where I have worked for 23 years as a journalist. The place where I married, raised my son, and which I call my home.   

Leaving is not my choice.

I am being forced to leave by the Government of India. Sixteen months ago, the Ministry of Home Affairs denied my right to work as a journalist, providing no reasons nor justifications, and no hearing. Since then, the Ministry has not once responded to my repeated requests for explanations or review of this arbitrary action. Last month, I was sent a notice that accused me and my articles of being "malicious", of harming "the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India"  and required me to respond to why my Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card should not be cancelled. The notice further claimed that my articles could "provoke disorder and disturb peace".

Today, I am unable to work and have been unfairly accused of prejudicing the interests of the state. It has become clear that I cannot keep living in India and earning my livelihood. I am fighting these accusations before the competent forums and I have full faith in the legal process. But I can’t afford to wait for its outcome. The proceedings with respect to my OCI status have shattered me, especially now that I see them as part of a wider effort by the Government of India to curb dissent from the OCI community. The authorities had earlier suggested I should change my profession. But I am a journalist, a profession that I hold dear to my heart, and I cannot agree to give it up because of unproven accusations…. 

I am immensely grateful for the extraordinary 23 years I spent as a journalist in India. I led a life filled with adventures and interactions across the subcontinent, and had the opportunity to witness over two decades of India’s history.  Being a foreign correspondent in India seeking to share with my French-speaking readers the complexity and richness of this country, was a privilege and an honor. I will cherish the memories I have of the warmth of the people and the beauty of this immense region. Delhi was my beloved city, where  I lived my life. To bid farewell to it now is a tremendous sorrow.

I hope I will be able to come back to India, one day.

If anonymous electoral bonds was seen by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as a way of stealing a financial march over its rivals, the Modi government has reacted to the Supreme Court’s order scrapping the opaque scheme in an utterly predictable manner. The income tax department has swung into action to freeze the bank accounts of the opposition Congress, citing – wait for this – the fact that the party was 45 days late in filing its tax returns in 2018.

India’s main opposition party Congress said today that the Income Tax department – under the control of the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Union government – has frozen its bank accounts and demanded Rs 210 crore as recovery over a 45-day delay in filing returns and cash contributions from its lawmakers in 2018-19. “This is the end of democracy”, says the Congress. Elections are less than two months away and if the income tax department’s action is not stayed, the party will have no funds with which to campaign.

Incidentally, the Election Commission of India has yet to comment on the landmark order of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds. Their role of chop and change has also been worth a deep look into. From terming it a “retrograde step” to cheering it on as cleaning up election finance, the ECI took a sharp U-turns on the matter.

The BJP on its part insists the bonds scheme was introduced to make election financing transparent! How something opaque can also be transparent is a question perhaps best left to Vedic science to solve. But BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad did make one interesting observation. Anonymity was intended to protect donors in the event of a new government getting elected. Note that he did not say it would protect donors to the opposition from vindictive action by the present government since (a) the government-owned State Bank of India has a list of all bonds sold and deposited, and (b) for all we know, that list of donors has already been accessed by ‘the competent authority’ for ‘necessary action’.

From amputations and fractures to corneal and head injuries, nearly 100 protesting farmers have been hospitalised with serious injuries after clashing with the Haryana Police on the Shambhu and Khanauri borders over the last two days,” says Karam Prakash, a reporter covering the protest. The farmers are trying to come to Delhi to protest the Modi government’s agricultural policies.

Donald Trump is likely to become the Republican Party’s nominee for the US presidential election later this year and the Hindustan Times reports on what Robert Lighthizer, the trade chief during the Trump administration and a man who it says Trump still turns to on matters of trade, thought of India and its trade policies at the time. HT notes that in his book from last year, No Trade is Free, Lighthizer says he kept a copy of the biographies of 15 Indian billionaires on his desk during negotiations with India in order to anticipate the Modi government’s positions (a friend later told him that only seven of those 15 oligarchs actually “run the country”). He also said India was “the most protectionist” country in the world – with negative consequences for the US – and acknowledged that a shared Chinese threat was a key aspect of Indo-US relations.

Six individuals have been arrested in connection with the looting of arms from the 5th India Reserve Battalion post in Manipur’s Imphal, reports The Hindu. This incident follows the suspension of a Head Constable by Churachandpur SP Shivanand Surve after a viral video depicted the officer with “armed miscreants and village volunteers”. Despite the recovery of only five rifles by the state police, questions arise over the disappearance of over 300 weapons from the armoury in East Imphal. Notably, the investigation into the matter continues as authorities address concerns surrounding the incident.

A Mangalore teacher’s attempt to teach a Tagore poem to her class has led to a police case. Why? The school and the teacher are Christian and some local Hindutva leaders, including an MLA, are accusing the teacher of disparaging Hinduism, citing two audio clips which are circulating on social media. This is perhaps the third or fourth case in the past year of teachers being policed and hauled up. [Earlier cases: Indore; Pune]

Having covered close to 2.5 crore families with the aid of up to four lakh employees of the state government, the Maharashtra Backward Classes Commission has submitted its report on the social, economic and educational backwardness of the Maratha community. The state assembly will meet on Tuesday to discuss the survey results. Meanwhile, the Maratha reservation crusader Manoj Jarange-Patil continues his indefinite fast and there are reports of his deteriorating health. He had again threatened to travel to Mumbai if his demands weren’t met in the coming few days.

Once described as an “inspiration” by Modi, a Surat diamond merchant known for his rags-to-riches story, Govindbhai Laljibhai Dholakia — or ‘Kaka’ (uncle) to those in the know — has been nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat. Dholakia is the founder and chairman of Shree Ramkrishna Exports Private Limited, a Surat-based diamond manufacturing and exporting company based in Surat. Sources close to Dholakia have revealed that he has made substantial donations to the Ayodhya temple, with reports indicating a noteworthy contribution of Rs 11 crore in 2011.

The former chairperson of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Lalit Modi, has presented a proposal to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), offering a blueprint that could revolutionise the cricketing landscape, Cricbuzz reports. While the specifics of his plan remain undisclosed, Modi’s vision aims to inject substantial revenue into the ECB’s coffers by restructuring The Hundred, the board’s flagship tournament launched in 2021, to mirror the highly successful T20 format. However, with Modi’s tainted history and lifetime ban from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the ECB may proceed cautiously, likely consulting with the Indian board due to the delicate bilateral relations between the two cricketing powerhouses.

Having “taken Indian voters for granted for years” – as per as the admission of one party official – the UK’s Labour Party is enacting a series of measures to reconnect with British Indians, including revamping the ‘Labour Friends of India’ group and organising India trips for two shadow ministers, reports The Guardian. Support for the party among the group has declined over the past decade for reasons including their adopting more conservative positions, influence from the BJP back in India and former party head Jeremy Corbyn’s support for a free Kashmir.

Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape initiative, which has helped restore tens of thousands of hectares in forest area and almost tripled the tiger population in the region, has been recognised by the UN as one of seven flagship restoration programs. But locals’ aspirations for better infrastructure, negative interactions between humans and the area’s wildlife as well as unclear government policies remain significant hurdles for the initiative, says Mongabay.

Subdued demand in the IT sector has slowed down the revenue growth for tech company Info Edge’s recruitment business, which includes the website naukri.com, Mint reports. Its real estate and matrimonial businesses are still seeing “strong traction”, though, with the 99acres website registering a 22% year-on-year revenue growth in Q3 and the JeevanSaathi site seeing increased traffic (though it is running in loss).

In Granta, Karan Mahajan has a lovely (and impressively short) story titled ‘The Attaché’s Wife’ about an official playing minder to a reporter visiting home from abroad on a government invitation who bristles at the condescension he encounters. “He remembered now why he’d left in the first place,” writes the author about the visting hack, “the people of this poor hot country were smug when they had nothing to be smug about”. Wait till the end to see what happens when the area of darkness comes home.

Muslim vendors made vulnerable by payment apps as Hindutva-influenced customers discover religious identity

In a disturbing trend, Muslim vendors and workers face heightened vulnerability due to online payment systems which reveal their identities through QR codes. Right-wing groups and individuals have targeted them with harassment, assault and discrimination upon learning of their Muslim identity during transactions, reports Fatima Khan. “There isn’t any reason why displaying the name of the individual would help the payment mechanism. Such a technology is in fact helping mediate pre-existing social exclusions and alienation”, says Srinivas Kodali. The QR codes, which often display the vendor’s or worker’s name, become a tool for vigilantes to discriminate. However, the issue extends beyond vendors to encompass food delivery and transportation services, where Muslim workers have also faced violence and refusal of service based on their identity.

Meta cuts back on fact-checking WhatsApp-linked disinformation

Amidst a huge year for democracy and global elections, WhatsApp’s parent company Meta is cutting funding for fact-checking on the messaging app, reports The Information. While WhatsApp is growing in the United States, its popularity is still nothing compared to places such as India and parts of Africa, where it often is the messaging platform of choice and plays a critical role in political campaigning. Meta’s decision to reduce payments to news organisations that fact-check claims on WhatsApp comes with India due to hold general elections in April and May, and much of the rest of the world set to go to the polls over the course of the year.

For India’s queer folk, the Internet brings hope and some despair

The internet in India has helped queer folk discover and articulate their identity, realise they aren’t alone as well as seek and offer support to each other. But the persistence of other fault lines is still a problem. Nolina Minj writes of how a person from a Dalit background shared the resistance they faced within their queer WhatsApp for sharing Ambedkarite-themed posts and realised the need for a separate collective. At the same time, every queer youth the reporter spoke to had faced or knew someone who faced abuse from strangers on the internet because of their gender identity.

The Long Cable

With Farmers at the Haryana Border, How Did We Get Here Again?

Indra Shekhar Singh

After a silent period of gestation, the Indian farmers movement has rejuvenated itself. Recently, some farmers’ group under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) – which is unafilliated to any political party – launched a peaceful convoy of thousands of tractors-trolleys to New Delhi. The convoy was stopped on the Punjab-Haryana border at Shambhu and the farmers were met with brutal state violence as they tried to cross over into Haryana. The tractorcade was to reach Delhi on 13th February.

Reports of police drones dropping tear gas bombs, and of cops using rubber pellets and batons have emerged, signalling the deep hostility of the government towards the peaceful farmers’ movement. In response, the farmers unions and its allies declared a Grameen Bharat Bandh (Rural India general strike) on 16th February. Various workers’ unions have supported the call and called for an industry strike too. They have been blocking roads and highways in civil disobedience against the unprovoked state violence.

Did the farmers deserve this treatment? Why weren’t they allowed to exercise their fundamental right to protest? How did things get so bad? Let us look at the chronology of events that led to the attack on the peaceful convoy and the blockading of roads with barbed wire, spikes and concrete.

In December 2021, the farmers decided to return home after the three farm laws they had protested against for nearly two years were rescinded. They left in good faith, as the Modi government promised them that their other demands – like a law on minimum support price, the withdrawal of cases, compensation for the farmers who died during the protest, etc. would be met.

The government continued its dialogue with the SKM until January 2022, when a statement on MSP was made. After that, all talks stopped. Their camps unpegged from Delhi’s borders, the SKM knew the farmers and their movement had lost their leverage. This is the beginning of the trust gap between the government and SKM.

Meanwhile the government also created a committee to further deliberate on the MSP question. From the start, the committee was boycotted by SKM because of the clear bias in its composition. An independent member even resigned from the committee, adding more weight to the farmers cause. This was the second betrayal by the government.

As the government refused to talk with the farmers’ leadership, the SKM used the next two years to build the campaign around India for MSP and also lent its support to other agrarian and social causes.

Meanwhile, it came to light that certain government-backed farmers union had started to emerge and even successful attempts were made to break bigger farmers’ unions like Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugraha) and BKU (Tikait). As farmers were trying to gain ground around the country, attempts were being made to weaken them at home. This increased the trust gap. Yet the SKM pulled through and reorganised itself in a stronger fashion, rebuilding its cadre, purging members and reorganising itself for future challenges.

For the past six months, farmer groups have been organising all over India to reiterate the demand for MSP and other agrarian issues. A new coalition was emerging between the north and south. But the first sparks were seen in Punjab again, when farmers launched sit-ins and hunger strikes for MSP. They approached the Modi government again for talks. As a reaction to this new wave, the government blocked Twitter accounts, and started arresting and weakening the farmers.

Yet the unions continued. Even before the convoy started, some of the farmers leaders met with Central ministers to remind the government of its promises and informed them of the farmers’ resolve to head to Delhi for a peaceful protest. After which all talks failed.

Farmers demands

When it comes to the farmers’ demands, nothing has changed. They have had the same demands since they left Delhi’s borders. The demands include implementing a Minimum Support Price for crops, in line with the Swaminathan formula, ensuring a legal guarantee of procurement, providing debt waivers, refraining from increasing electricity tariffs or implementing smart meters. Additionally, they seek free allocation of 300 units of power for farming, domestic use, and shops, comprehensive crop insurance, and increasing pensions to ₹10,000 per month.

In simple words, what the farmers want is a fair price for their produce. The question now is will the Modi government give in?

Indra Shekhar Singh is an independent agri-policy analyst and writer. He was the former director, policy and outreach, at NSAI. He also hosts The Wire’s agriculture talk show, Krishi ki baat/Farm Talks. He tweets @indrassingh.

Reportedly

The Congress’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra has had a difficult and turbulent run so far, given that the pure romance of Rahul Gandhi walking thousands of kilometres is not there and the BJP has also met every halt of Rahul Gandhi’s with a harsh move, targeted to impact on that very place’s politics. But there was a breath of fresh air today, when Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav rolled out in a Jeep and Gandhi said that “Tejashwi Yadav will be in the driving seat in Bihar”. After Nitish’s departure from the Mahagathbandhan, Bihar will take on its own colour, no doubt, and the two leaders were determined to paint the streets of Bihar Wrangler red.

Deep dive

According to a research paper published by VoxDox, “the creation of smaller local government polities in India resulted in greater public good access across multiple dimensions – village-level infrastructure, individually-targeted benefit programmes, and workfare programmes – over both the short and long run”. “The reform focused on village councils, also known as gram panchayats, the lowest level of elected government in India. They are responsible for local public goods provision and are a key player in various welfare and workfare programmes.”

`Prime number: 3`

It looks like there will be contests for three seats in the Rajya Sabha – Himachal Pradesh, UP and Karnataka. Polls are held if there are more candidates than seats — given proportional support of MLAs that go to earmarked candidates. NDA has pushed in these three states to fortify its politics and induce people outside its tent to vote. At a time of political flux, cross-voting becomes of interest.

Opeds you don’t want to miss

“Are we developing a template of democracy where elections will indeed take place but a systematic and administratively run trickery will unfold to ensure that free campaign doesn’t take place?” asks Suhas Palshikar on the actual practice of this idea of majoritarian democracy — where differences, arguments and criticism are excluded from the idea of democracy.
Despite money streaming into India's securities markets, “net foreign direct investment into India has plummeted to the lowest level in a decade”, writes Henny Sender.
Rohit Kumar writes, he has called up many farmers he met during the 2020-21 protests. “The odds are stacked against them, but their voices reveal no trace of fear or anxiety. Perhaps that courage comes from the knowledge that they are fighting for justice”.
CP Rajendran on how meagre funds are hobbling public funding for science.
Sandeep Phukan says politicians use reporters as “advanced warning systems” to communicate with their allies and adversaries without making public statements.
Tabassum Barnagarwalla reviews the Modi government’s performance on public health over the past decade. She finds, inter alia, that his health insurance scheme has failed to deliver, and that the new medical colleges launched with great fanfare lack staff.

Listen up

On the Interpreting India podcast, Anupam Chander joins Anirudh Burman to explore the evolving landscape of online free speech. “What is the best model for protecting free speech online? What are the benefits of the way online speech is regulated today? Are community guidelines for regulating online speech better than state regulations?”

Watch out

In this interview with Anupama Chopra on Film Companion, Kiran Rao talks about Laapata Ladies, flexing that director muscle again, and how she handles the constant chatter about her extended family.

Over and out

In the bustling streets of Delhi, a roadside vendor has caught the attention of food enthusiasts with an unusual twist on the beloved street food, momos. Instead of using water in the steaming process, this vendor uses Pepsi, creating a grey-hued dish that has sparked intrigue and controversy among locals.

“Around 43% of the tourists to South Africa are from India, of which 50% are from Bengaluru, including families and young millennials. Of this, 45% are leisure travellers and 46% are incentive travellers. In 2023, 80% of the travellers to South Africa were from Bengaluru”, said Neliswa Nkani, hub head- Middle East, India and Southeast Asia, South African Tourism, crediting tourists from Bengaluru with revenue for South Africa.

That’s it for today. We’ll be back with you on Monday, 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.

The India Cable