Thousands Fleeing Modi's Model State for the US; India-China Disengagement Begins; To Be or Not to Be (Friends With a Bigot)

Oct 25, 2024

Snapshot of the day

October 25, 2024
Siddharth Varadarajan

Sharjeel Imam SC

In 2012, Narendra Modi said he dreamed of a time that instead of Indians hankering after a US visa, Americans would be queuing up for Indian visas. Not only is that day nowhere in sight, it turns out around 90,415 Indians tried to enter the United States from Mexico or Canada without valid papers in the last 12 months between October 2023 and September 2024, as per data compiled by the US Customs and Border Protection agency. This means that about 10 Indians were caught every hour trying to cross the land border into the US without a visa. And it turns out that of them, nearly 50% were from Modi’s own Gujarat – presumably because of Gujarat being such a ‘model’ state.

India’s courts are also model courts. Student activist Sharjeel Imam has been in jail since 2020 on various trumped up charges and his bail appeal in the Delhi high court has been pending since 2022. Today, he approached the Supreme Court only to be told by the bench headed by Justice Bela Trivedi that it is not inclined to entertain his appeal and that he needs to try his luck in the high court itself. As a consolation, Justice Trivedi said “the petitioner shall be at liberty to request the High Court to hear the bail application as expeditiously as possible, preferably on November 25, as fixed by the High Court. The High Court shall consider the said request.”

Will things change once Chief Justice DY Chandrachud retires on November 10? Well, the Union Government today officially approved the appointment of Justice Sanjiv Khanna as the next Chief Justice of India (CJI). Justice Khanna, who currently serves as the first puisne judge at the Supreme Court, is the nephew of the legendary SC judge HR Khanna, who alone showed the courage during Indira Gandhi’s emergency to dissent on the issue of the inviolability of fundamental rights. Here is a brief guide to Justice Sanjiv Khanna’s major rulings so far – from Article 370 to electoral bonds.

The Supreme Court has set aside a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that accepted Aadhaar details to determine the age of a road accident victim in order to grant compensation to their families, reports Live Law. The court said such details could be better determined using a school leaving certificate. The bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan issued the order after hearing an appeal by the relatives of a man who died in a road accident in 2015, PTI reported. In its order on Thursday, the bench cited a circular from the Unique Identification Authority of India in 2023, which said that an Aadhaar card is intended to establish a person’s identity and could not serve as proof of date of birth. The UIDAI is the statutory body that issues Aadhaar numbers. Of course, central to establishing a person’s identity is their date of birth so is the UIDAI now saying that one of the elements that goes into generating an Aadhaar number is suspect? And if that is so, what exactly is Aadhaar good for?

India and China’s armies began withdrawing from Depsang and Demchok as part of the ‘deal’ between the two sides on Wednesday, and the disengagement process is expected to end in the next few days, Krishn Kaushik and Mei Mei Chu report. They cite an Indian army official as saying that soldiers returning from their positions would also remove huts and tents and also take back vehicles they had brought there to positions that existed before the standoff began in 2020. The @detresfa Twitter handle notes that “dismantling has been limited to impermanent structures like tents and shade canopies, the overall military setup remains intact”.

After the 2020 border clash killed at least 20 Indian soldiers, Modi took a range of steps to block investment from China, even going further than the US in some areas. Now there’s a recognition in New Delhi that he may have gone too far. Bloomberg reports on how the Xi-Modi breakthrough followed months of pressure from Indian business. “The stringent measures led to the collapse of several investment proposals, including BYD Co.’s $1 billion plan to build electric vehicles in India. Indian businesses have increased pressure this year on Modi’s government to relax the restrictions on China, according to officials familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. It became clear, they said, that the tough stance on China was backfiring on Indian companies and hurting Modi’s push to attract more high-end manufacturing, including chipmakers.”

Meanwhile, argues the Nepali academic Bhim Burtel, “India has realised that the economic benefits of its engagement with the US have largely failed to materialise. India has not received the anticipated preferential market access, technology transfers, or significant investments that China gained from the US in the 1990s. Instead, major US companies have left India, and India’s trade dependence on China has actually increased. Additionally, India’s position as a US ally has weakened its regional influence in South Asia. Modi has concluded that cooperation with China is essential for India’s economic development, especially given China's potential role in providing technology, investment, and market opportunities that the US seems unable or unwilling to offer.”

Militants killed ten policemen near the Dera Ismail Khan city in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province yesterday, Reuters reports citing sources. The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, citing as motive the Pakistan military’s killing of its senior leader in an operation yesterday.

And across the Khyber Pass, the Afghan Taliban’s deputy prime minister met with the Chinese ambassador, who announced that Beijing would offer the Taliban regime tariff-free access to China’s construction, energy and consumer industries, Joe Cash reports. Xi Jinping had announced last month that from December 1, goods entering China from “the least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with [it]” would not be subject to import duties, and the Chinese foreign ministry confirmed today that Afghanistan is one of these countries.

The apex court yesterday directed Ajit Pawar to “meticulously comply” with its earlier orders directing him to disclaim to the public that his and his party’s use of the clock election symbol was still sub-judice, Krishnadas Rajagopal reports, adding that it asked Pawar to file an undertaking promising compliance. Sharad Pawar has challenged the Election Commission’s recognising Ajit Pawar’s breakaway faction of the NCP as the “real” NCP and allotting it the erstwhile united pary’s clock symbol.

An Ahmedabad court yesterday reserved its judgement in reporter Mahesh Langa’s bail plea, The Hindu reports. Langa was arrested for alleged GST evasion and has also been named in a second case after police said they recovered sensitive documents of the Gujarat Maritime Board from his possession. The charge of possessing official documents would apply to thousands of journalists around the country.

Three seminars at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for West Asian Studies on the ongoing conflict in West Asia, which were to be addressed separately by the Iranian, Palestinian and Lebanese Ambassadors to India, have been cancelled due to “unavoidable circumstances”. University sources attributed the cancellations to concerns raised by senior faculty members at the School of International Studies regarding potential protests that such seminars on polarising issues could provoke on campus. Meanwhile, Sameena Hameed, Chairperson of the Centre for West Asian Studies told The Indian Express that the seminar with the Iranian Ambassador had been postponed on Wednesday, while the other two seminars were not “officially scheduled” by the Centre.

The Supreme Court declined to hear a contempt petition against alleged punitive demolition of properties in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Bar and Bench reports. The bench of Justices BR Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan dismissed the plea filed by the National Federation of Indian Women, stating it was not an aggrieved party. The plea from the women’s group referred to three instances of demolitions in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, Rajasthan’s Jaipur and Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, naming the district magistrates as parties to the contempt petition. The petitioners claimed that even if the state authorities were of the view that the structures were illegal, the properties were not covered by the categories carved out by the court as exceptions to stay.

A superior court in Delhi court has lifted an injunction imposed by a lower court that compelled Reuters to take down a detailed investigative story by Raphael Satter, Zeba Siddiqui and Chris Bing last year about an Indian hacker ring. The story is now back up again.

For the last two months Sheikh Hasina has lived in a “safe house” in Lutyens’ Delhi’s bungalow zone and occasionally takes walks in Lodhi Garden “with proper protocol for security”, Ananya Bhardwaj reports. She quotes a source as saying: “She has a strong security detail, with personnel guarding her round the clock but in plain clothes. As a dignitary, she is receiving this level of protection.” Earlier this month Bangladesh’s interim foreign adviser said that neither New Delhi nor Abu Dhabi – there was some speculation that she may have moved on the UAE – had provided official confirmation of Hasina’s whereabouts. Last week Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal issued an arrest warrant for her.

Customs authorities in Mumbai confiscated and sought to destroy priceless works of art by the Indian masters FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee on grounds of “obscenity”. Fortunately, the Mumbai High Court is not pleased.

The upcoming International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa will feature Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, a biopic on the Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar, as the opening feature film in the Indian Panorama section. Directed by Randeep Hooda, who also stars as the lead, the film is one of 25 feature films selected for the section. The line-up of features film, selected from 384 entries, also includes Kerebete (Kannada), Onko Ki Kothin (Bengali), Karken (Garo), Article 370 (Hindi), Srikanth (Hindi), Aadujeevitham (Malayalam), Raavsaaheb (Marathi), Jigarthanda Double X (Tamil) and 35 Chinna Katha Kaadu (Telugu).

Meanwhile, the godi media never disappoints. Footage of the 74-year-old Modi walking down from his aircraft is being compared with the 71-year-old Xi Jinping to make the point that … Modi is Great.

Asked for details on Modi’s mega consultations, PMO gives bizarre reply

Starting early this year, Narendra Modi on multiple occasions spoke of having consulted many lakhs – one time he mentioned crores – of people in order to shape a “roadmap” or “vision document” for what India ought to be like in 25 years or by 2047. Curious to learn more about this apparently hugely consultative process (something Modi is not famous for), Kunal Purohit filed an RTI query, only for the PMO to say that the details he sought were not covered by the definition of information under the RTI Act. It added that his query was “roving and open-ended”. Activists told Purohit that the consultations Modi spoke of would necessitate the generation of some paper trail and that authorities are required to explicitly state if they do not have the information sought from them.

It’s getting harder for Indian families to feed themselves

The average cost of making meals has increased by 52% in the last one year while salaries have grown by only around 10%. Inflation is killing consumption, this, when farmers are being underpaid to control inflation, when government policies like export bans, MEP etc have an inherent consumer bias. As a result, a larger share of an average person’s earnings is now spent on food compared to last year, finds The Hindu.

Empowered to farm fish, Adivasi women in Odisha earn money, fill stomachs

Odisha’s government over the last several years has helped women increase their participation in farming fish. Social and cultural barriers have excluded women from aquaculture and they are often outcompeted by companies, but schemes training women to farm fish in ponds in their backyards or leasing gram panchayat ponds to women’s self-help groups have helped circumvent these barriers. Reporting from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, Shamsheer Yousaf, Monica Jha and Sriram Vittalamurthy find that the increased access to fish has improved local Adivasi women’s diets as well as of their families and other locals – it has also helped them earn. A scheme in the state’s coastal areas to train women to produce clean, dry fish also bears hope.

The Long Cable

To be or not to be (friends with a bigot)

Rohit Kumar

In Season 6 of the award-winning TV series, Homeland (2011-2020), a Jewish American, Saul Berenson (played by Mandy Patinkin) visits his sister, Dorit, (Jacqueline Antaramian) in Israel. Dorit is a settler and a Zionist. Saul is not.

The two sit and reminisce about happier times. The conversation then veers towards Dorit’s deceased husband, Moishe, who decided to build their house on the very edge of the West Bank overlooking an Arab ghetto. The exchange goes something like this:

Dorit: Moishe chose this spot so that the Arabs could see us every day and know we’re never leaving.
Saul: Moishe and I saw things differently.
Dorit: He was my husband. You could have tried to understand his point of view.
Saul: Did he try to understand mine?
Dorit: You could have bent a little for my sake
Saul: There’s no bending with a fanatic. (Long pause) After you met him, you changed.
Dorit: Moishe opened my eyes to the false life that mother and father had us living. Exchanging Christmas presents with the neighbours, doing everything we could not to offend anyone with our Jewishness. Moishe made me proud to be a Jew.
Saul: He turned you against your family. He brought you to live in a place (Israel) that’s not yours, where you don’t belong! ... Haven’t you driven enough people from their homes already? Bulldozed their villages, seized their properties under laws they had no part in making?
Dorit: You don’t understand, Saul, you never have. I love the life that God has given me!
Saul: How can you love making enemies? How can you live knowing that your very presence here makes peace less possible?

The conversation then takes a turn.

Dorit: I have a family, a community, a life filled with faith and purpose. Saul, what do you have??

The question catches Saul off guard. It’s a low blow, for Dorit knows Saul is struggling in his personal life and has just been through a bitter divorce.

The scene is pertinent in more ways than one. Not just because of its ongoing relevance to the ever-worsening Jewish-Arab conflict and the genocide in Gaza, but also because of its resonance with so many who have lost friendships and close relationships to political polarisation and the bigotry encouraged by deeply divisive figures in positions of power.

If there is one thing those standing against hate have had to learn, it is the truth of Saul’s words, “There’s no bending with a fanatic.”

Sticking to one’s convictions is not easy, because no one likes losing friends. But how does one have close relations with bigots, supporters of genocide, or those who simply refuse to use their critical faculties to question hate-filled propaganda? Does one step away from those whose values are at loggerheads with one’s own and walk a lonelier road? Or does one ‘compromise’ for the sake of friendship and companionship?

Dorit clearly considers her life superior to her brother’s when she asks him:

“I have a family, a community, a life filled with faith and purpose, Saul, what do you have??”

A family, a community and a life filled with faith and purpose all sound like wonderful things on the face of it, but Dorit’s declaration begs a little scrutiny. -- What kind of family and community is it? An inclusive and kind one? Or an insular and bigoted one?

Also, faith in who or what? The return of past greatness and glory (that never quite existed)? A despot promising the same?

And, what kind of purpose? A benevolent one based on the values of kindness, trust and large-heartedness? Or a malevolent one predicated on hating ‘the other’?

Author and activist Ijeoma Oluo expressed it well when she said, “We cannot be friends with those who actively support oppression and hate. Friendship requires a certain level of integrity.”

Or as comedian Jon Stewart puts it more bluntly, “If you’re a friend of a bigot, you’re a bigot.”

It is difficult and complicated to create distance from those we have been close to. But if those friendships have now become toxic because of bigotry, then we most likely do well to walk away from them. Our future selves will thank us for it.

(Rohit Kumar is an educator, author, and independent journalist, and can be reached at letsempathize@gmail.com.)

Reportedly

Pachydermophobia is the name for the fear of elephants. If you think you don’t know anyone with this phobia, consider the case of the mainstream Indian media: during an informal interaction with Chief Justice DY Chandrachud in the Supreme Court yesterday, this report by PTI cites him as speaking about how his morning walk has been stymied by the capital’s poor air, how journalists no longer need a law degree to cover the court, the use of AI to translate the court’s judgments and, when asked of his post-retirement plans, that he intends to rest for a few days. But the elephant in the room – the controversy he generated by saying he had asked God for a solution to the Ayodhya dispute – was entirely avoided. Not a single journalist who attended the interaction saw fit to ask the most important question of the day!

Deep dive

Non-performing asset rates are falling across all segments, with personal loans being an exception. This is because of high and climbing delinquencies in other personal loans across public and private banks as well as NBFCs. Deteriorating asset quality means things won’t end well for lenders, writes Ujval Nanavati.

`Prime number: 4 militant attacks in a week`

Militants killed two army soldiers and two civilian porters in Kashmir’s Baramulla district yesterday in what was the fourth attack in a week’s time in the valley. With this attack, the death toll from militant attacks this week stands at least 12.

Opeds you don’t want to miss

When judges of the higher judiciary go haywire, writes Justice K. Chandru about CJI Chandrachud’s controversial ‘I asked God what to do’ comment about the (equally controversial) Ayodhya judgment, “it won't be long before the judges of the high court follow suit.”
Writing in the Chinese daily Global Times, Ding Gang zooms out of the recent China-India border patrolling deal and makes the case for India to look at China as a partner, not a rival:
“The US decided to paint China as its arch-rival, which led to its "China Plus One" strategy that aims to diversify manufacturing and source away from China to other countries. Suddenly, everyone looked at India as their backup plan, attempting to drive a wedge between China and India.

”On the surface, it seemed like India had hit the jackpot. But here's the reality check: India can't just snap its fingers and transform into a manufacturing powerhouse overnight. China is still India's go-to source for goods and industrial products.

Plus, India isn't exactly thrilled about being a pawn in America's grand chess game. It understands that playing by US rules won't let it become the independent powerhouse it aspires to be. What's more, if the US keeps pushing its agenda, the whole region could end up divided and at each other's throats, which would be detrimental to India's growth plans.”
As with solar modules, so with phones. “An iPhone made in India is cheaper in Dubai compared to Delhi.” And therein hangs a tale. Dinesh Narayanan on India’s industrial policy.
Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien looks at the lamentable functioning of parliament and parliamentary committees during Narendra Modi’s tenure as Prime Minister and makes five suggestions for how the work of standing committees can be improved.
Of Uttar Pradesh’s ordinance that will need eatery employees to display their names, Jyoti Punwani asks: “Can a state which forces those involved in offering food to display their identity, in the name of guaranteeing the ‘purity’ of the food, be described as Ram Rajya?” We already know the answer, but consider this point by Punwani anyway: When given a fruit by Sabari, who had tasted it before offering it to him, Ram ate it anyway despite being warned by his brother not to.
In a piece on the ‘food demons of Uttar Pradesh”, Radha Khan writes: “The rapid changes in patterns of food consumption have given rise to anxieties and are perceived as destabilising and as a loss of culture: “We seem to want the culture of the new economy, but not the cultures of food that go with them!”
In light of the recent train accidents that have made the headlines, “the real issue” in the railways, says Sudhanshu Mani, “lies in how [it] is handling safety improvements and communication”. He points to the railways’ handling of the Kanchanjunga Express accident, its slow movement with Kavach and its non-use of AI for insights as examples of these problems.

Listen up

On the Empire podcast, William Dalrymple and Anita Anand discuss Scotland’s overlooked role in the British Empire, the ethical dilemmas of Roman-Indian trade, why Rome never set its sights on conquering India and the devastating impact of European diseases on Indigenous Americans. Listen here.

Watch out

Sasikanth Senthil, a former IAS officer who is now a Congress MP from Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu speaks at Manthan Samvad about how to counter majoritarianism.

Over and out

The discovery of the remains of two lost medieval cities high in the mountains of eastern Uzbekistan may change our understanding of not just the silk route, reports Kelly Ng, but of the evolution of urbanism, hitherto believed to be confined to low altitude zones.

As crops ripen in northeast India, elephants migrate closer to farmlands, sparking conflict with farmers, write David Smith and Aniruddha Dhamorikar on the role of “anti-depredation squads” in reducing these clashes.

A Benninger building on the Mahindra campus. ©CCBA Designs

The US-born Christopher Benninger, who died earlier this month, was one of a handful of western architects who designed iconic buildings in India, even if he was not as well known as the others. Like Joseph Stein, he made India his home. Among his more important works was the Mahindra United World College Campus near Pune. Amit Khanna pays tribute.

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