| Good morning! Have you ever heard of Westarctica? It's a micronation in Western Antarctica, which essentially belongs to no country and has no functioning government. In 2016, Harsh Vardhan Jain claimed to have been appointed the "honorary ambassador" of this unclaimed strip of land. Jain projected himself as a globe-trotting envoy and ran an "embassy" from a rented double-storey bungalow in Ghaziabad. He wooed businessmen, offering access to global markets. He even had photos of himself with dignitaries and luxury cars with diplomatic plates and flags. Turns out, this was all part of an elaborate scam. In the background, Jain was allegedly running a hawala racket through shell companies. It all came crashing down on Tuesday, when Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force raided the bungalow and arrested Jain. My colleague Saman Husain has more details on this bizarre case of diplomatic fantasy. On that note, let’s get to today’s edition.
🚨Big Story The proposal to impeach a judge has caused quite the stir in Parliament. The row began when the Opposition brought the motion, signed by 63 MPs, to the now-retired Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar, and he mentioned it in the Upper House. The act may have rubbed the government the wrong way as it was seen as overshadowing its motion in the Lok Sabha, signed by 145 signatories. Soon after, Dhankhar resigned as the Vice President of India, and in effect, as the RS Chairman. So, what happens now? Sources tell The Indian Express that Dhankhar had not "admitted" the Opposition's notice -- which is required by the law. Whereas, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla admitted the government-sponsored motion after he received it around noon on Monday. However, since Dhankhar had mentioned the Opposition's motion in the House, the officiating chairman, Harivansh, would be consulted for the constitution of a statutory committee to investigate the grounds of the judge's impeachment. Birla is set to announce the same soon. Catch-22: Dhankhar's abrupt resignation has caught the Opposition off guard. There seems to be a lack of clarity in the Opposition camp on how to capitalise on the situation, given that Dhankhar resigned citing health reasons, even though many have suggested that there was more to it. The internal fissure was evident at Rajya Sabha’s Business Advisory Council (BAC) meeting on Wednesday, where Congress demanded a farewell for Dhankhar. No other Opposition member backed the demand. Notably, Dhankhar was seen as a partisan Chairman to the extent that Opposition parties had brought a no-confidence motion against him last year. Meanwhile… The Election Commission has announced that it has started preparing for the Vice-Presidential elections and will soon release the schedule. The election may put the Opposition’s unity to a fresh test with the challenge of finding and fielding a joint candidate.
⚡Only in Express The Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls has disrupted Parliament proceedings in both Houses amid the Opposition’s demand to discuss the matter. Outside Parliament, the SIR has come under scrutiny from political parties across the spectrum. JD(U) MP Giridhari Yadav broke ranks with his party and its ally, BJP, to criticise the exercise as a “Tughlaqi farman (ill-conceived diktat)”. In an interview with The Indian Express, Yadav speaks about the lack of time, bureaucratic hurdles and even bribery allegations. Meanwhile, Yogendra Yadav, who has filed a petition against SIR in the Supreme Court, writes in his weekly column that the EC’s claims about the progress of the electoral roll revision are sharply at odds with first-hand accounts of chaos and procedural violations in Bihar.
📰 From the Front Page Towards normalcy: Amid ongoing efforts to repair bilateral ties, India has resumed the issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals after a five-year gap. The latest move is part of a series of confidence-building measures the two countries have taken in recent months, including the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra last month. AI analysis: The Income Tax Department is now leveraging artificial intelligence to identify patterns in taxpayer behaviour, such as the number of online visits by a user on its portal, flag high-value transactions and filter out PANs involved in wrongful claims. In an interview with The Indian Express, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Ravi Agrawal said the idea was "to progressively create a 360-degree profile of taxpayers’ transactions”.
📌Must Read ‘Mastermind’: Sixty-two-year-old Praful Lodha, a controversial figure, has always maintained a low profile. Lately, however, he has come under the spotlight amid allegations by Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut that he was behind a series of "honeytraps", which forced many Sena leaders to leave with Eknath Shinde back in 2022, when the Shiv Sena split toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra. Today, Lodha faces two separate POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases, and charges of rape, blackmail, illegal confinement, and using obscene content to threaten victims. The walk: Every July, North India sees groups of men, dressed in saffron clothes, atop trucks or on foot. These kanwariyas undertake the annual pilgrimage, called the Kanwar Yatra, to carry the water of Ganga to various Shiva temples. In recent years, the number of Kanwariyas has swelled as the government has made better arrangements for their journey. What is the religious belief behind Kanwar Yatra, and how did its present form come to be? We explain.
⏳And Finally… When love isn’t enough: Social media and films would have us believe that break-ups always need explicit, solid and explosive reasons. But separations need not necessarily be about betrayal, disappointment, and anguish. Sometimes everything is ‘fine’, and that is the problem. In this candid Fresh Take piece, my colleague Shruti Kaushal writes about walking out of her seemingly “perfect” relationship. 🎧 Before you go, tune in to the latest ‘3 Things’ podcast episode. Today’s lineup: The plight of migrant workers, designer babies, and ATS bust of an Al Qaeda module. That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow, Sonal Gupta |
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