Rima M | Rakesh Sharma
Sometime on April 17, 2019, 2008 Malegaon blasts accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was chosen as BJP’s candidate against Congress leader Digvijaya Singh in Bhopal. Jet Airways announced on their official Twitter account that they will suspend all the domestic and international flights immediately. Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi went public with her resentment with her own party for taking back workers who had been thrown out for misbehaving with her. "Lumpen goons" get preference in the Congress over those who had "given their sweat and blood", she wrote in a tweet. TIME's list of 100 most influential people was released and Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani was named among the Most Influential Titans. Warriors Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy, who led the legal battle for LGBTQIA+ rights in India, also featured on the list. News also broke that two Indian men were reportedly beheaded on February 28 in Saudi Arabia, and the Indian Embassy in Riyadh was not informed prior to the execution.
Reliance Q4 results are out, and the company reported 9.79 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated profit at Rs 10,362 crore for the quarter ended March 31. Analysts in an ET NOW poll had projected a net of Rs 10,000 crore. Strong show by retail and telecom divisions boosted RIL’s numbers during the quarter. India’s biggest company in terms of market capitalisation had posted a profit of Rs 9,438 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Standalone profit declined 1.60 per cent to Rs 8,556 crore on lower gross refining and petrochemicals margin. Overall consolidated revenue increased 19.40 per cent YoY to Rs 1,54,110 crore in Q4FY19. PBDIT rose 16.30 per cent to Rs 24,047 crore.
And, as a Hindustan Times correspondent put it, Bhopal is considered as one of the safest Lok Sabha seats for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, and the party has never lost once from here in the last 30 years. Former President Shankar Dayal Sharma was the last Congress candidate to win the seat. That was in 1984.
That the party thinks it is cementing an already strong position by fielding the 2008 Malegaon blasts accused against one of her most vociferous critics, Digvijaya Singh, is significant because the focus is now clearly not upon the much touted “vikas” but on whatever Sadhvi Pragya Singh represents. And, the lady seemed to know it well as she stated before the assembled members of the press. As ANI summed it all up, “I have a clean chit. The conspiracies against me have failed. A non-believer can never be strong because he doesn’t have truth on his side. The seed that he sowed… linking Hindutva and saffron to terrorism… it was an insult and that will be an issue… I will fight to get respect for the saffron. We will unitedly fight against the people who are conspiring against the nation. We will win this Dharm Yuddh.”
She also added for good effect, “After spending 10 years in jail due to Congress conspiracy, I have come here to fight the political and religious war.”
A self-proclaimed Sadhvi, Pragya joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the early nineties.
Her life took a turn when, on September 29, 2008, explosives hidden in an LML Freedom motorcycle went off opposite Shakil Goods Transport Company in Malegaon, Maharashtra, killing six people and injuring over 100.
The investigation, recalls The Indian Express, was led by the then Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare (who was to be killed by Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in Mumbai less than two months later), who traced the motorcycle to Surat and ultimately to Thakur, a former ABVP activist.
We quote, “Investigators travelled to Pune, Nashik, Bhopal, and Indore, and Army officer Lt Col Prasad Purohit and retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay were arrested. Roles of the Hindutva outfit Abhinav Bharat, and a self-proclaimed seer named Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey emerged.
The investigation revealed an alleged conspiracy to retaliate against jihadist attacks in India. In a charge-sheet filed on January 20, 2009, and a supplementary charge-sheet filed on April 21, 2011 before the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court in Mumbai, the ATS named 14 accused — also including Shivnarayan Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Sameer Kulkarni Ajay alias Raja Rahirkar, Rakesh Dhawade, Jagdish Mhatre, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Pravin Takalki, Ramchandra Kalsangra, and Sandeep Dange.”
In December 2010, says the piece, the CBI arrested Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Aseemanand, who confessed before a magistrate that the Malegaon blasts of 2006 and 2008 were carried out by radical Hindu groups as “revenge against jihadi terrorism”. We quote again, “He said the plan to target Muslims was hatched by a group led by former RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi. He said the group was behind the Samjhauta Express, Ajmer Dargah and Mecca Masjid blasts of 2007. Aseemanand subsequently retracted his statement and has now been acquitted of all charges.”
In early 2011, the Centre transferred the Malegaon 2006, Malegaon 2008, Mecca Masjid, and Ajmer Dargah blast cases to the NIA. The NIA had been investigating the Samjhauta blasts since 2010.
How does the "Sadhvi" fit in this puzzle?
Deeptiman Tiwary explains, “It was Sadhvi Pragya’s arrest on October 24, 2008 that opened a window for investigators into the alleged activities of Hindutva extremists. Her name figured multiple times in the larger conspiracy, but she was charge-sheeted in only the Malegaon 2008 case, in which her motorcycle was used. According to the ATS charge-sheet, Thakur was part of most meetings of the radical activists from 2006 onward, at which plans to target Muslim-majority areas were discussed. Meetings about the Malegaon 2008 attack took place from January 2008 in Faridabad, Bhopal, Kolkata, Jabalpur, Indore and Nashik. At a meeting in Bhopal on April 11 that year, Thakur allegedly took charge of finding the men to execute the attack. These men were Sunil Joshi, Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, the charge-sheet said.”
The key material evidence against Thakur in ATS charge-sheet is her bike.
She had also claimed that allegations against her resulted from a conspiracy hatched by the then-Congress government at the Centre. In 2017, a special NIA court had dropped the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) charges against Thakur and others in the Malegaon blast case. But, she, however, still faces trial under other criminal provisions, says IE.
The party leaders were suspended following Chaturvedi's complaint but were reinstated later after an intervention by Jyotiraditya Scindia.
She tweeted, “Having faced brickbats & abuse across board for the party but yet those who threatened me within the party getting away with not even a rap on their knuckles is unfortunate.
Not many news reports have been able to nail just exactly what happened during the actual incident in question. But, according to Chaturvedi, the incident took place during a press conference that she recently addressed in Mathura. It was here that something unpleasant happened.
How the events will impact her long term relationship with the party that claims to be democratic and more empathetic towards women remains to be seen. And, now onto another big story.
As the piece delineated, founded by ticketing agent-turned-entrepreneur Naresh Goyal after India ended a state monopoly on aviation in the early 1990s, Jet Airways is part-owned by Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways PJSC and controlled 11.4 percent of India’s market, one of the world’s fastest-growing. As well as plying domestic routes, Jet Airways had international destinations including London and Singapore on its schedule.
What got it into trouble? We quote, “As a slew of budget carriers started flooding the market in the mid-2000s, offering no-frills yet on-time flights, Jet Airways began dropping fares, some to below cost. Provincial taxes on jet fuel as high as 30 percent added to its expenses, while price-conscious Indian travellers refused to pay a premium for on-board meals and entertainment. Unlike budget operators, full-service airlines such as Jet Airways offer such amenities mostly for free. The airline made losses in nine of the past 11 years, has about 73 billion rupees ($1 billion) of net debt and. According to Bloomberg calculations, had approximately 3.55 billion rupees of cash at the end of last year.”
At the moment, its prospects look bleak. The airline has defaulted on loans that were due by Dec. 31 and delayed payments both to staff and lessors. In March, it missed a $109-million loan repayment to HSBC Bank, says the Bloomberg piece. As recently as January it was flying a fleet of 124. And, on April 17, the company said it was temporarily suspending flights after its lenders refused to grant it interim funding. Those same lenders are leading efforts to save the airline.
The rivals are not doing too well either. According to the piece, “The airline business in India is notoriously difficult, with cutthroat competition pushing base fares to as low as 2 cents. Kingfisher Airlines, founded by beer tycoon Vijay Mallya, ended operations in 2012 after failing to clear its dues to banks, staff, lessors and airports. SpiceJet Ltd. almost collapsed two years later before its founders returned to gain control and revive the company. State-run Air India Ltd. is surviving on bailouts worth billions of dollars. Apart from Etihad, Singapore Airlines Ltd. and AirAsia have also set up local ventures, but they are loss-making. There’s one exception: IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., has managed to consistently make money with a tight lid on costs and lucrative maintenance and engineering contracts negotiated as part of large aircraft orders.”
And, now for an influencer who seems to be making all the right financial moves.
In another significant move, Mukesh Ambani, along with another corporate heavy weight Uday Kotak, has backed senior Congress leader and two-time MP, Milind Deora, for the South Mumbai constituency.
As reported by multiple news agencies, in a 2-minute campaign ad, released by the former Union Minister, various industrialists and small business owners backed Deora’s candidature.
Mukesh Amban said, “Milind is the man for South Mumbai. Having represented South Bombay for 10 years, I believe Milind has in-depth knowledge of social, economic and cultural ecosystem of the South Bombay constituency.”
There is a lot to unpack in these lines, and we will leave the political analysts to read the subtext in the statement.
In the meanwhile, voting in Maharashtra is taking place across the first four phases.
5. Two Indians beheaded in Saudi Arabia
Via an unsettling news report, India learnt that two men from Punjab were executed by Saudi Arabia on February 28.
Divya Goyal writes poignantly in The Indian Express, “Behind the execution of two Punjabi men in Saudi Arabia lies a pattern that has played with unfailing regularity – jobless youth in state borrowing money or selling land and property to pay to travel agents lured by dreams of big moolah on foreign shores. That the dreams have more often than not ended in tragedy is something that has failed to put brakes on such exodus. Two such dreams met a brutal end – death by beheading – on February 28. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has confirmed execution of Satwinder Singh of Hoshiarpur and Harjeet Singh of Ludhiana, in an alleged murder case of 2015.”
The heartbroken families, says the piece, are now hoping for a miracle and want that his mortal remains should be brought back for cremation. The letter from MEA says that, as per Saudi system, mortal remains of those who are executed are not handed over either to family or the embassy of that country. Only death certificate is issued and, that too, two months after the execution.
And, the focus should be on hunger for not just food but for education. Is India’s widespread food insecurity damaging children's ability to learn?
Business Standard carried a report on April 18 where academicians Jasmine Fledderjohann, Elisabetta Aurino and Sukumar Vellakkal said so. They pointed out that food insecurity can also cause children to experience hunger, under-nutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies. This can lead children to have problems with concentration and memory.
We quote, “Children who experience food insecurity might also feel irritability and shame. This could impact negatively on their interactions with their parents, teachers and peers.
There has been an impressive expansion in school enrolment in India since the early 2000s. Despite this, India is in the midst of a “learning crisis”, with improvements in learning lagging behind increases in enrolment.
Worldwide, India also has one of the highest rates of child under-nutrition and household food insecurity – that is, inadequate or inconsistent access to enough safe and nutritious food to sustain a healthy life.
Both of these issues have negative implications for the long-term health, well-being and productivity of young people, as well as for the economy more broadly.”
The findings are based on a survey data from the Young Lives study of childhood poverty to examine whether there is a link between food insecurity and learning for Indian adolescents.
The report argues that early intervention to prevent food insecurity is important to ensure that children are not disadvantaged while learning foundational skills. Scaling up early childhood feeding programs may be useful for targeting early food insecurity.
We quote, “Offering free remedial learning classes for children who experience food insecurity may also enable them to catch up with peers. Finally, where social protection is inadequate to prevent children from working, providing safe, well-paid employment opportunities over school breaks may help children to work without missing learning opportunities.”
According to The Hindu, the suspension came after the poll body sent a one-man enquiry team to Odisha to investigate the matter. "According to the ECI order, the official, Mohammed Mohsin, had not acted in conformity with the ECI’s instructions that have made an exception for SPG protectees like the prime minister," the report stated. It also cited EC's April 16 order as saying: "The Election Commission has considered the material available before it and prima facie finds it as a dereliction of duty."
Mohsin is a Karnataka cadre officer of the Indian Administrative Services deputed as a special observer.
Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
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