'Under Review' AFSPA Extended In Nagaland; Bad Loan Writeoffs a Ritual At Taxpayer’s Expens
Cambridge tracker predicts India wave in days, two-thirds of Delhi second wave deaths uncounted, FIR against Biswa Sarma, new IITs below par, Jharkhand to give cash back to BPL at petrol pumps
A newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas | Contributors: MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, Sushant Singh and Tanweer Alam | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal
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Snapshot of the day
December 30, 2021
Pratik Kanjilal
India launched its third nuclear powered, nuclear-armed Arihant class submarine earlier this month. Geo-imagery expert Chris Biggers posted a satellite picture showing the launch of S-4, built under a top secret programme.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) has been extended in Nagaland by six months. Government sources justified it: “Nagaland is in such a disturbed, dangerous condition that use of armed forces in aid of civil power is necessary”. The Northeast is incensed after the killing of 14 civilians, with three NDA chief ministers opposing AFSPA. In EPW, Justice Madan Lokur writes about the “misuse of power” via this controversial Act. The draconian law is not only a “blot” on Indian democracy, as Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio said, but it also encourages lazy soldiering. Blanket legal cover incentivises collateral damage, says Subir Bhaumik.
The Army has reportedly agreed to the Nagaland government’s Special Investigation Team questioning its personnel from the 21 Special Forces unit, involved in the Oting killings. It wasn’t immediately clear if the SIT can directly question the jawans, or only prepared statements will be shared. The Army had stated that it is fully cooperating with the SIT, but the Kohima Army PRO did not talk about possible questioning.
Even after major write-offs, banks’ gross NPAs may jump to 8.1-9.5% by Sept 2022 from 6.9% in Sept 2021, says RBI (see the Long Cable below for the back story).
A Hindutva propaganda video circulated from hate-spewing news channel Sudarshan News’ head’s Twitter handle showing schoolchildren pledging to “fight, die and kill” to create a Hindu Rashtra was filmed by subterfuge by people who “meant mischief”. Jitendra Singh, manager of Vimla Inter College at Robertsganj in Sonbhadra district, UP, said a Sudarshan News crew had asked to take boys to a nearby park for a debate.
“It is likely that India will see a period of explosive growth in daily cases and that the intense growth phase will be relatively short,” said Paul Kattuman, professor at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, which has developed a Covid-19 India tracker. Eleven states are in the rapid growth stage. “New infections will begin to rise in a few days, possibly within this week.” The tracker had accurately predicted India’s deadly second wave. The government is not making more data available, but http://covid19bharat.org – a volunteer effort continuing the work of the now defunct http:/covid19india.org – is up and running. Yesterday, Delhi saw the biggest jump in infections since May ― 86% in 24 hours.
PM Modi’s visit to the UAE and Kuwait in January will be rescheduled due to Omicron, possibly to February. Travellers arriving in the UAE from India, Bangladesh, Russia and Pakistan must undergo mandatory testing.
The Uttarakhand High Court has issued a notice to the Election Commission on a plea seeking postponement of Assembly elections. The plea stated that Omicron is spreading quickly, yet political parties are conducting huge rallies, posing a grave threat.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has announced a cashback of Rs 25 per litre on petrol for BPL families for two-wheelers, with a monthly limit of 10 litres, from January 26.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police will act against civilians and politicians who made “speculative statements” about the gunfight in Srinagar’s Hyderpora last month. A day earlier, the SIT had tried to absolve security forces of blame. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah has questioned police for “rushing to the press” while still investigating.
The Delhi High Court has said maintenance for wife and children applies to Army personnel: “It cannot be said that the Army Order would override the provisions of Section 125 CrPC.” The bench rejected a plea by a serving colonel against the order of a family court.
Joyojeet Pal of University of Michigan ran an experiment to see what Twitter accounts associated with the Indian defence establishment, particularly retired military, army spouses/parents, noted as their media preferences. The thread of “top tens” tells an interesting story.
Abdul Khaleque, Congress MP from Barpeta in Assam, has lodged an FIR against the chief minister for his speech in Morigaon, in which Himanta Biswa Sarma termed the Gorukhuti eviction as an act of revenge “for 1983”. Shocking images had emerged of a citizen being shot without sufficient cause, and his corpse being assaulted by policemen.
Speaking at a journalism award ceremony in Mumbai, Chief Justice NV Ramana paid his “respects” to the late photographer, Danish Siddiqui: “He was a man with a magical eye and was rightly regarded as one of the foremost photojournalists of this era. If a picture can tell a thousand words, his photos were novels.” Siddiqui, who was named ‘Journalist of the Year’ by the Mumbai Presss Club, died on assignment in Afghanistan. The Indian government’s disregard for the Pulitzer-winner was painfully visible.
The trailer of Arjun Gowda, a Kannada film made in reaction to the Gauri Lankesh murder, is out.
New ISI chief Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum has instructed Pakistani authorities to not release his images or video footage to the media. He could learn a thing or two from the Indian Prime Minister.
Former bureaucrats warn against Aadhaar-Voter ID linkage
Over 100 former bureaucrats, including former Home Secretary GK Pillai and former RAW chief AS Dulat, say the law linking Voter ID with Aadhaar numbers undermines faith in the electoral process and could lead to “voter profiling, selective exclusion and targeted campaigns”. The Constitutional Conduct Group says that the “superimposition” of a card issued for identity and address verification could seriously harm the “independence and integrity" of the Election Commission.
They described as “unfortunate” the passage of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 “without any effective Parliamentary scrutiny”. It was “even more unfortunate” that the Election Commission had promoted a move which undermines it.
New IITs don’t meet standards
A performance audit of the eight new IITs ― in Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jodhpur, Mandi, Patna and Ropar ― by the CAG has found very low representation of reserved categories among students. They remain dependent on government grants. None could attain the stipulated intake of students. IITs Bhubaneshwar and Jodhpur could not even introduce all courses. Enrolment into postgrad programmes is poor in all eight.
Two-thirds of Delhi second wave deaths uncounted
Excess deaths in Delhi from January to June were three times the Covid-19 death data released by the Delhi government ― two-thirds of Covid-19 deaths in the national capital went uncounted. According to data obtained from Delhi’s urban local bodies by National Herald, 1,14,872 deaths were reported while the average death count of the previous three years in the same period was 72,567. The difference: 42,305. The Delhi government’s Covid-19 health bulletin for the same period states there were only 14,441 Covid-19 deaths. This points to 27,864 under-counted deaths from January to June, and the second wave of Covid-19 is the only plausible explanation.
Citing global data, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Sequencing Consortium (INSACOG) says in its latest bulletin that Omicron evades immune responses successfully, but the severity of illness is lower.
MP Christians under siege
Christians in Madhya Pradesh have been besieged over the last year, since the BJP returned to power in the state in March 2020, reports Scroll. The Adivasi community has long been riven about religious conversions. Now, explicit Hindutva assertions of the government have re-energised old discords. The government passed a stringent anti-conversion law in January and has lent institutional weight to mobilisations against Christians. The police either ignore complaints or try to have them withdrawn.
The Long Cable
Bad loan writeoffs ― A decadal ritual at taxpayer’s expense
MK Venu
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament last week that the balance sheets of public sector banks have been cleaned up and hoped they would start lending to kickstart the economy. But the FM never spoke about the massive cost of the cleanup, incurred by the taxpayer. Banks have written off Rs 11.68 lakh crore of bad loans over the last 10 years, as per an RTI reply by RBI to Indian Express, most of it during the seven years of the Modi government. About Rs 2.2 lakh crore was written off in 2020-21.
The BJP government is not telling us how much of the Rs 11 lakh crore written off is attributable to large business houses, which have borrowed heavily over the years but failed to repay. The Modi government has always claimed that bad loans piled up during UPA’s 10-year rule, when banks lent indiscriminately to cronies who undertook big infrastructure projects and did not repay. If this is true, then the Modi government should be ready to expose these big business houses that have defaulted. Instead, the government has in fact been encouraging them, even partnering with them in critical sectors like defence production.
Recently, the Congress disclosed documents suggesting that Yes Bank had written to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs about alleged frauds committed by Subhash Chandra’s Essel Group, which borrowed from it but defaulted. Audit firm Price Waterhouse & Co had written to the government two years ago about alleged related party lending by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Capital. Recently, the RBI took over its board as it faces bankruptcy. Reliance Capital has not repaid large sums borrowed from government banks.
Dewan Housing and Finance Ltd (DHFL) also went into bankruptcy, owing Rs 90,000 crore to banks. DHFL was later bought over by the Piramal group at a throwaway price. The ultimate losers were banks, which had to write off large portions of loans made to DHFL.
FM Nirmala Sitharaman has claimed that the banks are making decent recovery through the bankruptcy resolution process, which is touted as a big reform. The data shows otherwise. A CRISIL study says 95% of cases resolved at bankruptcy courts have led to recovery of only about 20% of loans under default.
In India, there has always been a heavy concentration of lending to influential business houses that manage to game the bankruptcy system. At least Rs 3-4 lakh crore of loans written off could be on account of just 6-7 politically influential business houses. Many are under scrutiny for irregular diversion of loans for purposes other than the main business. There are cases of over-invoicing of imports, one way of taking money borrowed from banks out of the country. Such funds return to the country through various channels to fund elections. Little wonder that no government is able to hold such defaulters to account.
The reality is that once in 10-12 years, government banks have to clean up their bad loans with the taxpayer’s money. It happened in 1993 when Manmohan Singh was finance minister. It again happened in the early 2000s under the Vajpayee regime, and then bad loans piled up again after 2010. This is an unending saga. The taxpayer picks up the tab each time. The plot never changes.
Reportedly
The BJP is facing a crisis of silence. Staying mum on aggressive sadhus in Haridwar was first interpreted as “excellent politics”, bound to help the BJP electorally as it distanced itself while remaining one with the hate-spewers. Then, attacks on Christians, the denial of funds to the Missionaries of Charities, and MP Tejasvi Surya mouthing venom got it in a bind. How to avoid bad press overseas and yet remain in sync with the hate machine at home?
Apple puts Foxconn on probation
Apple has said that Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur facility in Tamil Nadu had been placed on probation and must meet standards before it can reopen. Foxconn said that all employees would to be paid while necessary improvements are made. A mass food poisoning incident at the Sriperumbudur factory’s offsite dormitory facility had forced the closure.
Prime number: 165
Only 165 militants, including 75 foreigners, are still active in the Kashmir Valley, as per official data. In 85 encounters this year, 162 militants, including 145 locals and 17 foreigners, were killed. Nearly 70% of the locals who joined militancy this year were either killed or arrested.
Succession mess in Coast Guard
The Centre is in a quandary about the next director-general of the Coast Guard after a key contender for the post moved the Delhi High Court challenging the new promotion policy of the Ministry of Defence. Promotion shall be subject to further orders of the court. Current Director-General GK Natarajan retires on December 31 and will be executive director of the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre, Singapore. The Defence Ministry, reports The Week, has recommended a shortlist to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet to take the final decision. But promotion could lead to embarrassment if the court overrules the appointment.
Deep Dive
While South Africa has acted swiftly to publicise Omicron, India’s mishandling of Delta fuelled its global rise. Bloomberg reports on India’s poor response ― months of governmental inertia and a startling lack of resources.
Modi ignores corridor’s real builder
PM Modi said that Maharani Ahilya Bai Holkar and Maharaja Ranjit Singh inspired the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project. Newclick reminds us that he failed to mention that the corridor was actually built by Nawab Ali Ibrahim Khan.
Op-Eds you don’t want to miss
Concerted anti-minorities attacks and their reflection in the BJP’s electoral campaign proves that the Sangh Parivar is indeed a ‘single-issue’ fraternity. But shedding other pretensions has increased political risks, writes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan writes that the Indian state seeks to turn Hindu citizens into enforcers of its majoritarian vision at the neighbourhood level, while the BJP can maintain just the right distance to allow for plausible deniability. But mass political and social radicalisation does not come with power steering.
Simply turning back the clock to the Hindutva of the early 1990s and pouring bile on the Mughals might not be sufficient for the BJP to win UP, writes Asim Ali.
The big jump in gold loans during the pandemic indicates widespread distress, says Mint in its SnapView.
Subir Roy writes that the biggest failing of the Centre remains its vaccination policy. There could be inadequate supply for booster doses, while the SII complain about lack of orders from the government.
Neelam Kapur writes that over the last few months, there has been much confusion about the government’s communications on the pandemic.
A four-day work week under the new labour codes is not legally feasible, writes Kingshuk Sarkar.
Ajit Ranade writes that India’s real pandemic is one of unemployment and underemployment. In a world of ageing affluent societies, why can’t we convert the largest and youngest labour force into an advantage?
Poorly considered reservation criteria have brought on the resident doctors’ strike, writes Umang Poddar.
Ghulam Mohammad Jaula, who oversaw the coining of the slogan ‘Har-Har Mahadev, Allah-Hu-Akbar’ in 1987 in UP with the Bhartiya Kisan Union, speaks up.
The proposed merger of the Films Division, the largest moving image repository of India’s history, with the National Film Development Corporation raises several troubling questions, writes Avijit Mukul Kishore.
Raghu Karnad reviews The Dream of Revolution and notes that JP spoke against Hindu communalism, which could, he noted, “easily masquerade as Indian nationalism, and denounce all opposition to it as anti-national”.
From a Dada-Virat hug to the full disbanding of India’s Olympic bodies and renaming all stadiums after sportspeople, Sharda Ugra puts together New Year desires for Indian sport.
Chosen by overruling seniority, Gen Bipin Rawat had to curry favour with the government, yield to unprofessional demands and practice politics writes Lt Gen PG Kamath (retd).
Mohan Kanda writes that close to 70% of Indians suffer from hunger, 50% of them acutely. India is home to the largest number of undernourished people in the world.
IISc physicist Vasant Natarajan died at the age of 49, leaving behind distraught students. Ayan Banerjee recalls his life.
Listen Up
Kavery Nambisan speaks to The Hindu about her new book A Luxury Called Health: A Doctor’s Journey Through the Art, the Science and the Trickery of Medicine.
Watch Out
The Quint has an interactive about a December full of anti-Christian attacks by Hindutva mobs.
Over and Out
A new statue of Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo is causing controversy in Goa, which was liberated 60 years ago. Critics say local football players should have been honoured, since many were on India’s national team. This is not the first time a statue of Ronaldo has raised eyebrows ― in 2017, a bust in Madeira airport in Portugal was widely mocked and eventually replaced.
Most of the 10 most viewed YouTube channels in India are run by men, but one of the most viewed Indian female creators on the platform this year is Alisha Hazal, who does rooftop dance videos. Against the backdrop of the rooftops of Lucknow stretching behind her, one of her cover versions uploaded in 2020 has 400 million views.
From Rijula Das to Shakoor Rather, The Independent lists the nine best upcoming authors from India who write in English.
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