Zubair Judgment Paints Unflattering Picture of UP Police; ‘Revdi’ Culture or Basic Social Responsibility?
Kargil celebrated even as Ladakh is unresolved, complaints against Chidambaram temple, only 23 convictions under PMLA, Adani bags lion’s share of coal imports and Amartya Sen says no to Mamata's award
A newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas | Contributors: MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, Sushant Singh and Tanweer Alam | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal
Snapshot of the day
July 26, 2022
Pratik Kanjilal
The Karnataka High Court today issued notice to the Union government after hearing a plea by Twitter India challenging orders to take action against 1,100 accounts without offering sufficient reasons. The next hearing is on August 25.
The vice-presidential contest is quite an old-world thriller, with both sides dealing new cards regularly. Dhankhar took unconventional steps like meeting khap leaders, and Opposition pick Margaret Alva is in top form too. BSNL decided to question her KYC, she says. She had much to say on the matter.


Today, Kargil Vijay Diwas is being celebrated with great fanfare by the government and the Army. But the government is oblivious to what is happening a few hundred miles to the east, in the same Corps zone. The Chinese have refused to vacate territory in eastern Ladakh they occupied 26 months ago, despite 16 rounds of talks. A day after talks concluded at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point, the PLA carried out an air drill over Pangong Tso – sending a clear signal to New Delhi. Drones are repeatedly violating the 10 km Confidence Building Measure (CBM) agreement between the two sides. Large-scale military exercises are underway in the Tibet Military District and the Xinjiang Military Districts ― across from Eastern Ladakh.
India’s oldest insurgent group, the Naga NSCN (IM) yesterday claimed that the RSS’s objection to the proposal for a separate flag and Constitution for the Nagas was delaying the process of finding a solution to the decades-long Naga conflict. In a statement, the outfit said the matter about a separate flag and the Constitution was resolved long ago, but the RSS got in the way.
The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to allow banks to raise deposits from NRIs by offering them higher rates has not resulted in a significant jump in forex inflows in two weeks. Bankers said there is little incentive for depositors to invest in these products or for banks to promote them. “Ultra HNIs who have invested in certain bonds are bleeding. As a result, they are unwilling to put extra money into deposits, which are earning just 25 basis points more than before,” said the treasury head of a large bank.
Indian passengers arriving in Pakistan, including via the Kartarpur Corridor, will undergo telescopic monitoring at all entry points due to rising coronavirus cases in India, the Directorate of Health Sciences in Pakistan says. Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore has made arrangements to screen Indian passengers. Two planeloads arrived in Karachi in recent days, when malfunctions on Spicejet flights caused emergency diversions. Otherwise, human movement between the countries is low.
The Army currently has a shortfall of 1,16,484 personnel, the Navy 13,597 and the IAF 5,789, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Lok Sabha. On an average, 60,000 vacancies arise in the three armed forces every year. The number of recruits in 2019 was 95,843 ― 81,812 in the Army, 7,548 in the IAF and 6,483 in the Navy. Only 12,091 soldiers were inducted in the Army in 2020, and none in 2021. For the Navy, the numbers were 2,772 and 5,547 sailors and for the IAF, 8,423 airmen in 2020 and 4,609 in 2021.
Partha Chatterjee, minister in Mamata Bannerjee’s government and one of her closest aides, appears to have been abandoned by the TMC chief now that he faces serious allegations. The West Bengal Chief Minister ducked three calls from Chatterjee in prison. He called her under rights offered to detainees to inform friends or family of their situation in jail. The ghosting is now public.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen did not accept the Banga Bibhushan Award, the highest civilian honour conferred by the West Bengal government yesterday. The award was introduced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2011, soon after she assumed office. Sen, who has cordial relations with her government, has declined, saying that he has been fortunate to receive many honours, and this one should recognise someone else. The mother of Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, another Nobel laureate from the state, accepted on his behalf and donated the prize money to charity. In 2012, Pandit Ravi Shankar declined the award, reportedly because he didn’t want to be clubbed with the many recipients. The next year, actor Soumitra Chatterjee turned it down, calling it a “bogus award”.
Another bitter fight between the BJP and the Opposition has broken out with the suspension of four Congress MPs for the rest of the session. In the Rajya Sabha, 19 Opposition MPs have been suspended for the week. With new rules and circulars, such as the ones limiting parliamentary language, democratic functioning is impeded. “A hundred things are not allowed in Parliament, only cheering Modi-ji and Amit Shah-ji is allowed,” said Manickam Tagore, a suspended Congress MP. The PM has said that the Opposition obstructs development work.
Part of a bridge connecting Bhopal to Hoshangabad collapsed in heavy rainfall. It was built just last year. At a Drone Mahotsav in May, the PM had said he sends up drones to conduct “surprise inspections of development work”, but he must have missed this one. Elsewhere, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said he often feels like “quitting politics”, because there’s more to life.
A report by PRS on the functioning of state assemblies finds wide disparities in working days. Kerala tops with 61 days in 2021 and Delhi is at the bottom with eight. Smaller assemblies with less than 70 members sat for 14 days on average while larger assemblies met for 24 days on average.
Gautam Adani is benefiting from the government’s rush to import coal. His company has won the majority of import orders from NTPC. Of 20 million tonnes of imported coal ordered for the fiscal year, Adani Enterprises will supply almost 17.3 million tonnes. Adani’s ports unit may gain in the June quarter due to the rise in imports, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Denise Wong says. The company is “well positioned to capture that demand, underpinned by fixed contracts with power producers and a strong transportation network.”
Only 23 people have been convicted on money laundering charges, while the Enforcement Directorate has registered over 5,400 cases in the past 17 years under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, the government informed Parliament yesterday. Almost two-thirds of the cases – 65.56% – were filed by the Modi government. The Opposition alleges that Modi is using central agencies as political tools to harass and intimidate political opponents. A quick recap.
Lest we forget, Maharashtra remains a government of two. It is now 26 days, nearly a month, since the government assumed office and it has zero ministers.
Everything you need to know about monkeypox in India and why there’s no immediate cause for panic: Karan Thapar interviews Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO and K Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India.
At least eight people have died in Gujarat’s Botad district after drinking illicit liquor and 18 are sick. There is total prohibition in Gujarat.
Olympic medallist boxer Lovlina Borgohain has publicly alleged mental harassment and stated that “training stopped eight days before the Commonwealth Games”. This has set the cat amongst the pigeons and sporting authorities and the ministry have been forced to react.
Meanwhile Tejashwi Yadav is in training, hauling a jeep about. Earlier this month, Modi told him to lose weight.
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