Zero Hour: Was VK Singh used to build a narrative on eastern Ladakh?

The sacrificial goat?

Should the Minister of State for Roads and Highways have commented on the Indian Army allegedly intruding into Chinese territory? Answering a question in Madurai, V.K. Singh, the former Army Chief, who was not given the Defence portfolio by the Prime Minister, said this: “…none of you come to know how many times we have transgressed as per our perception. We don’t announce it. Chinese media does not cover it… Let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must have done it at least 50 times, as per our perception”.

Not surprisingly, China pounced on the statement and said it was an unwitting confession by India, reiterating its contention that India has been intruding into Chinese territory. The minister could easily have said something to the effect that with Narendra Modi as PM, India had nothing to worry etc. But he didn’t. Even as Rahul Gandhi demanded that he be sacked for allowing China to reinforce its case against India, conspiracy theorists believe the former army chief is being made a sacrificial goat. Prime Minister Modi, it is being said, is desperate to mend fences with China but before doing that, it was politically necessary to build the narrative that India was the aggressor! Will it boomerang is what observers are wondering.

Misinformation vs Disinformation

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar informed Parliament this week that “no child was deprived of online education during pandemic as the government had taken several steps in that direction”, reported PTI. But nobody pointed out a NCERT survey finding last year which conceded that 27 per cent of students had no access to smart phones or laptops and 28% of the respondents admitted to erratic electricity supply hampering online classes. But what the minister said must be true!

Top on ED’s list!

The Enforcement Directorate this week carried out raids in the offices and residence of Newsclick, an independent news portal critical of the present Government. Tweeted Aunindyo Chakravarti, “I have been making videos for newsclick.in for more than a year now. Used to visit its office every week till COVID came. It is so small that as a visitor I felt I should wash the cup that I was given tea in. Obviously, such an organization must be of great interest to the ED.” The columnist and consultant added, “I mean this quite literally. I saw everyone washing their cups and putting it back on the rack in a small kitchen. I too followed suit. It is cash-strapped & can't afford to subscribe to video services. Yet, everything they produce is under creative commons for everyone to use.”

Upper caste politics

Political Scientist Christoffe Jaffrelot pointed out this week that ‘62 per cent of all general category MP candidates of the BJP in the Hindi belt were upper castes as against 37 per cent for all other parties’ combined. In the government that Modi formed in 2019, 47 per cent of the 55 ministers were from the upper castes, 13 per cent from the dominant castes (including Jats, Patels and Reddys), 20 per cent were OBCs, 11 per cent were SCs and 7 per cent from the STs (plus one Muslim and one Sikh)’ .

Work in progress!

From threats that the PM and other ministers would boycott media events to easing out editors, beginning with Krishna Prasad from Outlook in 2016, the pressure on the media has built up relentlessly. An incomplete timeline of the assault on the media:

2017: Hindustan Times editor-in-chief Bobby Ghosh quits and the Hate Tracker started by him dropped; CBI raids Radhika and Prannoy Roy of NDTV; ED files case

2018: IT raids Quint

2019: Restrictions imposed on media in J & K; ED case against Raghav Bahl of The Quint

2020: Prashant Kanojia arrested; Malyalam TV channels taken off the air for reporting on Delhi riots; Siddique Kappan arrested; FIRs lodged against newsmen covering Hathras rape and murder

2021: ED raid at office of Newsclick; freelance journalist Mandeep Punia arrested; cases filed against several senior media personalities for tweets on the disputed death of a farmer

When can bail be denied?

The order by the Supreme Court granting comedian Munawar Faruqui interim bail is just 11 lines long but manages to pack far more relevant legal reasoning than the 10-page order by the Madhya Pradesh High Court denying bail to the comedian. The Supreme Court referred to the guidelines it had laid down for denying bail and left it at that. Lawyers were quick to point out that bail can be denied in most of the case only on one of the following grounds:

• for proper investigation of the offence;
• to prevent the accused from tampering with evidence;
• to prevent them from threatening/influencing witnesses;
• to prevent them from absconding.

Cost of Rafale induction ceremony

The induction ceremony of the first five Rafale jets at the Ambala Air Force base on September 10 last year cost the exchequer a little over of Rs 41 lakh including Rs 9.18 lakh GST, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Rajya Sabha. "The arrangements for this event were made mostly through local resources of IAF,” he added. All-new variant of aircraft are traditionally inducted into the Indian Air Force through a "befitting ceremony", he informed. Curiously another ‘formal’ induction ceremony of the fleet had took place six weeks later.

Indians who gave up citizenship

More than half a million, in fact over 6.7 lakh, Indians gave up their Indian citizenship in the five years between 2015 and 2019, Parliament was informed. The highest number of people giving up their Indian passport in this period was recorded in 2016. The break-up given to Parliament is as follows:

2015: 1,41,656

2016: 1,44,942

2017: 1,27,905

2018: 1,25,130

2019: 1,36,441

The Hindu Rashtra

A viral video on social media this week showed an official claiming that a BJP MLA assaulted him following his refusal to issue a closure order to a ‘Muslim’ restaurant in Loni. “Why is this restaurant still open and why haven’t you shut it down yet,” the MLA apparently asked the official, a Hindu. It was explained that inspections had not revealed any irregularity and under the rules the eatery could not be closed down. The poor official was then summoned by the MLA to his office and abused. Seemed to bear out what former Vice President Hamid Ansari told Karan Thapar in an interview. Muslims, the former VP said, had been forced to live in ghettos for a long time and people would not rent out houses to them. But now people are being advised to buy from vendor X and not vendor Y.

Tailpiece: The ‘Vocal with Local’ catchphrase from last year reappeared

With a vengeance this year following the renewed call for ‘Atmanirbhar’ Bharat. Reacting to a social media message that said, ‘Avoid Momos and Noodles, Have Samosa with Chai’, others were quick to point out that Samosa is an import from Turkey/Persia, Tomato from South America and mint or Pudhina from the Mediterranean.