The April issue—The taming of the election commission of India; All the things electoral bonds can buy; Subcategorising Dalits would undo their historical identity; The clinic in contemporary fiction; Assam’s failing anti-CAA protests; and more.
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Today afternoon, Delhi Police assaulted
@thecaravanindia
’s staffer Ahan Penkar while he was reporting. ACP Ajay Kumar kicked & slapped Penkar inside the Model Town station premises. Penkar repeatedly told the police that he was a journalist and prominently displayed his press ID.
In the February 2021 issue—Akshay Kumar as Hindtuva’s poster boy; Dispatches from the farmer protests; The genealogy of a new Dalit assertion; Remembering Shamsur Rahman Faruqi; Shaheen Bagh as a model for the future; and more.
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Nasir Khan has alleged that Naresh Tyagi shot him in the eye during the Delhi violence. Another person has said they witnessed this. But even two years on the Bhajanpura police station has still not registered the FIR, despite a court rebuking them for it.
The January issue—Shah Rukh Khan’s silent rebellion; Arputhamammal’s quest to free her son; India’s dangerous boasts about fighting Pakistan; Narendra Modi’s outsized image; Memorialising Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s legacy; and more.
Read now:
Pulitzer-winning photographer Danish Siddiqui was killed today while on assignment in Afghanistan. Siddiqui was a prolific photojournalist whose images spoke to defining moments in Indian democracy in recent years
A thread of some of Siddiqui’s images, published by The Caravan.
Copies of diary entries that are with the IT dept note that BS
#Yeddyurappa
paid the BJP central committee 1,000 crore; Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari 150 crore each; Rajnath Singh 100 crore; and LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi 50 crore each.
Arun Jaitley was part of a three-member investigation team looking into the
#BoforsScam
that failed to bring any evidence against Rajiv Gandhi.
Praveen Donthi in:
#LokSabhaElections2019
Today afternoon, in the Subhash Mohalla locality in north-east Delhi, a group of men and women assaulted three staffers of
@thecaravanindia
—
@Prabhtalks
,
@shahidtantray
and a third staff member—to stop them from reporting.
“Shekhar has made more money than most of us can imagine,” one of his journalist friends said. When I asked my source how Gupta had done so, he smiled knowingly and replied, “Not by editing.”
From 2014:
Behind this wave of nationalism in Hindi cinema, however, there seems to be a system of unspoken collusion. The image-conscious government watches closely not just the content of films but also the opinions publicly expressed by celebrities.
On the Spot: “Is [Modi] going to get his victory by setting the country on fire?” Neena, whose brother died of COVID, asked. “On whose pyres is he going to get his victory?”
Now with subtitles,
@shahidtantray
and
@cknotok
’s report from Delhi’s Old Seemapuri cremation ground:
#Watch
: How Modi’s Kashi Vishwanath corridor is laying the ground for another Babri incident.
In March, some local residents were caught attempting to bury a small statue of Nandi near the north wall of the Gyanvapi mosque.
#BabriMasjid
#Varanasi
#KashiVishwanath
The Yeddyurappa Diaries: Pages with income tax note payoffs to BJP—150 crore each to Jaitley and Gadkari; 100 crore to Rajnath Singh; 50 crore each to Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi
@nileenams
and
@aathira_vk
report:
"I am a Kashmiri first, before being a Kashmiri Pandit, and I have a problem with the abrogation of Article 370 and the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir": Former Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak
Ajaz Ashraf's interview with Kak:
“A policeman was breaking my camera, and he was saying, ‘Issi mein hai na iska?’ [This has it, right?] It had footage of those who were pelting stones at the farmers,” Punia said. “Whoever would come near me, would taunt me, ‘Aur ban le reporter.’”
“Mr Jaishankar seems to be more of a courier person than policy-maker in India … where the main policies and operations are decided between Modi, Amit Shah and Doval,” Kanak Mani Dixit told
@EramAgha
. “This is how I see it from Kathmandu.”
From March:
“I had hardly any options left, when DSP Davinder Singh asked me to do a small job for him. That is what he told, ‘a small job’ He told me that I had to take one man to Delhi,” Afzal Guru told
@vinodjose
in 2006.
#AfzalGuru
“Shekhar has made more money than most of us can imagine,” one of his journalist friends said. When I asked my source how Gupta had done so, he smiled knowingly and replied, “Not by editing.”
From 2014:
Replug | Just days before Modi arrived to lay the foundation stone for the Kashi Vishwanath corridor, in early March 2019, locals were caught attempting to bury a Nandi statue on the Gyanvapi mosque compound, adjoining the famed temple.
@iimc1999
reports:
A Scania audit reveals emails, messages exchanged between Scania India officials and Nitin Gadkari's sons, Sarang and Nikhil, about the luxury bus.
The audit concluded, “The actual acquirers of the bus were Messrs. Nitin, Sarang and Nikhil Gadkari.”
BREAKING | Updates on the killing of
#farmer
Navneet Singh at ITO:
An eyewitness told The Caravan that he saw the police firing from behind the grills of the Andhra Education Society. A group of police officials led by ACP HSP Singh have taken charge of the CCTV footage.
“Shekhar has made more money than most of us can imagine,” one of his journalist friends said. When I asked my source how Gupta had done so, he smiled knowingly and replied, “Not by editing.”
From 2014:
Amit Shah, surrounded by senior CBI officers and lawyers, after being arrested in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, in July 2010.
Read our 2014 profile of
#AmitShah
:
Replug | More accurate would be to think of
#SachinTendulkar
as a man who wears the colours of whichever establishment happens to be in power, devoid of any ethical or moral concerns towards the society and country that has so deified and venerated him.
Our account has been restored. Today more than ever, it is clear that true media needs true allies. We thank our readers, subscribers and contributors for their support.
Subscribe now to read India’s premier magazine of politics and culture:
Replug | For 11 days, Facebook did not approve the request to promote our story on Amit Shah and Jay Shah. In the case of an important news story that is part of a rapidly developing news cycle, a boost 11 days after its release is meaningless.
The Yeddy Diaries: Pages with income tax note payoffs to BJP—150 crore each to Jaitley and Gadkari; 100 crore to Rajnath Singh; 50 crore each to Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi
@nileenams
and
@aathira_vk
report:
⚡️ Death of Judge Loya: On the intervening night of 30 November and 1 December 2014, the judge BH Loya died under mysterious circumstances. At the time, he was presiding over the Sohrabuddin encounter case, in which Amit Shah was the prime accused.
Replug | Those who cooperate with government are rewarded in many ways: tax cuts, government assignments, national awards and so on. Those who do not are punished through the misuse of institutions.
Bhavya Dore on
#AkshayKumar
:
Kashmiri Journalists under crackdown amid
#coronaviruslockdown
.
On 18 April, the Kashmir police booked the photojournalist Masrat Zahra under the draconian UAPA. The police also registered an FIR against Peerzada Ashiq, a special correspondent for The Hindu.
@shahidtantray
:
A 22-year-old resident of Karawal Nagar, who said he participated in the
#DelhiViolence
, described in detail how he and his Hindu companions attacked Muslims, with encouragement from the Delhi Police.
@yuva_journalist
and
@shahidtantray
report.
Replug I Since the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power, the net worth of Jay Shah’s firm Kusum Finserve rose by Rs 24.61 crore and its total income grew by a whopping Rs 116.37 crore.
From 2019:
“Gujarat Files” contains transcripts of taped videos of an undercover sting operation that implicates top officials in Modi’s Gujarat administration. Yet, the court has set it aside without examining any evidences.
From July 2019,
@RanaAyyub
writes:
Five years ago today,
#RohithVemula
, a Dalit scholar, took his life after he and four students from the Ambedkar Students’ Association were suspended from the University of Hyderabad under pressure from Bandaru Dattareya, then a BJP MP, and Smriti Irani, then the HRD minister.
This URL has been taken down because of an order from the ministry of information and broadcasting under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Ajit Doval was a member of the Indian negotiating team for the
#RafaleDeal
though he had no legal sanction to hold the role. The government concealed his involvement in its submissions to the Supreme Court.
“If this is not about caste, then what is it?”
In UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri, Kahar man says Brahmins killed pregnant wife over use of handpump
@shahidtantray
and
@SunilK07638741
report:
It appears important to the leaders in Beijing that the protests in Hong Kong should not have spillover effects on the mainland. Many journalists covering the protests have faced brutal attacks by the police.
Raviprasad Narayanan writes:
Following his retirement, Jaffer had spoken of Tendulkar in effusive terms, describing him as his “role model.” On Thursday, as much of India’s cricket community showed its solidarity with Jaffer, this time Tendulkar’s Twitter stayed silent.
Vaibhav Vats:
#JudgeLoya
’s sister Anuradha Biyani said that Loya confided in her that Mohit Shah—then the chief justice of the Bombay HC—offered him a bribe of Rs 100 crore for a favourable judgment in the Sohrabuddin case.
From November 2017,
@niranjan_takle
in:
An officer who worked on implementing the Right To Education Act said they found Smriti Irani “ill-read” and “averse to briefings,” except when she had to answer parliamentary questions or had a meeting with the prime minister’s office.
From Nov 2016:
This generational gap reveals an aspect about a changed political order, where the young have come of age in a globalised Hong Kong, with far more liberal values and exposure to the ideals of democracy.
Raviprasad Narayanan writes:
The August 2021 issue—The RSS’s attempt to hide its Nazi heritage; Playing politics with judicial commissions; The Naga peace process in peril; How Indian anthropology fails tribal people; PG Wodehouse and the comic tradition; and more:
Chief Justice Mohit Shah made an offer of Rs 100 crore to my brother for a favourable judgment in the Sohrabuddin case: Late Judge Loya’s sister
@niranjan_takle
on the pressures and inducements Loya allegedly faced while hearing the Sohrabuddin case:
#Archives
| Sachin Tendulkar also shares the worst traits of the Indian middle-class: its indifference to the general good, its lack of commitment to the values of human rights and democracy, and its intellectual vacuousness.
Vaibhav Vats writes.
Many of the farmers
@mandeeppunia1
met were clueless about why they had been arrested and jailed. Several of them had not even met with a lawyer since they were arrested. Many of them asked, “Why is the government doing this to us?”
Replug | PM Modi approved a final price for the
#RafaleDeal
that was €2.5 billion higher than the price set by a pricing expert appointed by his own govt.
@HartoshSinghBal
✍️
The continuous protests in Hong Kong are giving fillip to activism abroad, where citizens of different countries are fighting for democratic values.
Raviprasad Narayanan writes:
#BCCI
| In the
#ICC
meetings,
#JayShah
“stops people and says, ‘No, no it is not done like that,’” the cricket official said. “He wants to be on every committee. He is treating everyone like he is the home minister of the ICC.”
Our September cover story:
Nineteen bodies were brought to a graveyard in New Mustafabad, following violence against Muslims by armed Hindutva mobs in northeastern Delhi, in the final week of February.
@shahidtantray
reports.
#DelhiViolence
Replug | Propaganda films are closely associated with the cinema of the Third Reich. The Nazis were quick to harness the power of cinema as mass medium, and installed an infrastructure to serve their purpose.
From April 2019,
@SharmaKamayani
in:
As the woman staffer ran and attempted to reach the Bhajanpura station, the mob attacked her again. The attackers beat her on her head, arms, hips and chest. The man in the saffron kurta was among them, as were two women.
This generational gap reveals an aspect about a changed political order, where the young have come of age in a globalised Hong Kong, with far more liberal values and exposure to the ideals of democracy.
Raviprasad Narayanan writes:
Replug | The BJP leaders accused of leading or orchestrating the Delhi violence include Kapil Mishra, Jagdish Pradhan, Nand Kishore Gujjar, Mohan Singh Bisht and Satya Pal Singh. The Delhi Police did not register an FIR into these complaints.
The CRPF jawans who were killed in the
#PulwamaAttack
were predominantly lower-caste. Only five out of 40 jawans, or 12.5 percent, came from Hindu upper-caste families.
Ajaz Ashraf reports:
Our website is up and running again.
Subscribe now to read
@nileenams
and
@aathira_vk
's report on the Yeddy Diaries: Pages with IT dept note that
#Yeddyurappa
paid Rs 1,800 crore to BJP and its leaders, and judges and advocates.
At the SMHS hospital in Srinagar, a five-year-old girl, Muneefa Nazir, was lying on a bed with her right eye bandaged. She had been brought the previous day at 6.30 pm from Safakadal after a CRPF jawan hit her with a stone with his catapult.
#Kashmir
Replug | “I had hardly any options left, when DSP Davinder Singh asked me to do a small job for him. That is what he told, ‘a small job’ He told me that I had to take one man to Delhi,”
#AfzalGuru
told
@vinodjose
in 2006.
Replug | When Ramdev sells a kilo of what he calls “Desi Cow Ghee,” not only can he not be sure that it is “desi”—he cannot even be sure that it is cow ghee.
An excerpt:
The
#RafaleDeal
is a lifeline to Reliance Group, which is now promised a massive infusion of funds through its defence holdings.
@SagarChoudhary_
’s September 2018 cover story on how India gambles its defence interests on Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group.
Replug | The markets read Modi’s arrival as a major boost to the Adani Group. The group’s listed companies saw their value rise by some 85% after Modi’s inauguration, compared to a roughly 15% increase for the Sensex over the same period.
The mob physically assaulted the staffers, threatened to kill them, and used communal slurs. One among the mob, dressed in a saffron kurta, claimed he was the “BJP general secretary.”
Archives | Nathuram’s brother Gopal was also convicted for Gandhi’s assassination. He recounted in his memoir that Nathuram, shortly before his execution on 15 November 1949, recited the official prayer of the RSS.
Dhirendra K Jha in:
“The findings in this report have no suggestion of a heart-attack. They show changes, but not a heart attack”: Dr RK Sharma, one of India's foremost forensic experts, after examining the medical documents pertaining to Judge Loya's death.
This generational gap reveals an aspect about a changed political order, where the young have come of age in a globalised Hong Kong, with far more liberal values and exposure to the ideals of democracy.
Raviprasad Narayanan writes:
Soon, 15-odd police personnel dressed in riot gear arrived with HSP Singh, ACP of the Tilak Nagar subdivision, who stayed outside the room. The police forced the farmers out.
An police officer in riot gear took the CCTV tape, hid it inside his chest shield and walked out.
A CAG audit report presented in Parliament yesterday reportedly found that almost 40% of the 1.4 lakh toilets constructed under the Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan were non-existent, partially constructed, or unused.
#SwachhBharatMission
Archives | “My primary concern has always been the constitutional rights of Adivasis and Dalits,”
#StanSwamy
said in this interview from 2018. “If you take up these issues, these are the things you have to face.”
The continuous protests in Hong Kong are giving fillip to activism abroad, where citizens of different countries are fighting for democratic values.
Raviprasad Narayanan writes:
#DelhiViolence
| Today marks a year since anti-Muslim violence began in northeast Delhi.
Here is a master thread of our coverage—ground reports, video stories, testimonies of survivors and in-depth investigations into the BJP and the Delhi Police’s complicity in the violence.
August 2022 marks three years since the Modi government announced the abrogation of Article 370 and placed the Kashmir Valley under a crippling lockdown.
Our in-depth coverage reveals the reality that the government and mainstream Indian media have tried hard to erase.
Watch: How Modi’s Kashi Vishwanath corridor is laying the ground for another Babri incident.
Replug | In March 2019, some local residents were caught attempting to bury a small statue of Nandi near the north wall of the Gyanvapi mosque.