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Journalism of Courage
Good morning,
Let me take you back to 2004 for a moment. You’re in the theatre, watching Shah Rukh Khan’s Main Hoon Na, and just when you thought the movie was over, it cuts to another song and dance sequence. One by one, not just the cast but even the usually behind-the-scenes crew appear on screen, dancing to ‘Ye Fizaein‘. Three years later, Farah Khan would do it again with Om Shanti Om, asking crew members to walk down the red carpet. It’s all a bit silly, but wildly entertaining. These end-credit sequences also serve a bigger purpose of interrogating the way films — and capitalism itself — are structured. Contributing writer Aamatullah Rajkotwala writes in the latest ‘Fresh Take’ that these end-credit scenes challenge the capitalistic tendency of ‘commodity fetishism’, when a product is valued more than the labour which produced it. Do we then dare call Farah Khan an accidental Marxist?
On that note, let’s get to today’s edition.
In the next two weeks, India will engage key partners Russia and China. On August 21, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, paving the way for President Vladimir Putin’s potential visit to India. Crucially, Putin is set to meet US President Donald Trump in Alaska tomorrow. New Delhi will watch their talks closely. If Putin and Trump reach a framework for ending the war in Ukraine, India could avoid the additional 25 per cent US tariff linked to its Russian oil purchases.
On August 18, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit India for talks with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China later this month, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to attend.
Tightrope: These engagements are part of New Delhi’s multi-alignment foreign policy, but it will be careful not to be seen as part of an “anti-Western” grouping. India has often portrayed itself as non-Western, and not anti-Western. Beijing has been seeking an India-Russia-China trilateral meeting, but New Delhi has so far refused to participate.
Trumponomics: These geopolitical churnings gained urgency in the face of Trump’s steep tariffs. Trump has raised duties on all trading partners, pushing the average import tariff to 15–20 per cent from 3 per cent in January. While the broader economic impact is yet to show, inflationary signs are emerging. How has the US avoided the worst of Trumponomics? Read my colleague Anil Sasi’s report.
Pak hand: Amid New Delhi’s strained ties with Washington DC, Pakistan has improved its relationship with the US under Trump. Army Chief Syed Asim Munir has visited the US twice on high-level trips in less than two months. While Pakistan’s army has long exercised de facto control over the country’s governance, Munir’s emergence as Pakistan’s numero uno figure on the international stage is unprecedented.
The first batch of Agniveers, part of the new Agnipath recruitment scheme, is set to complete their four-year term by 2026-end. Sources have told The Indian Express that discussions are underway to increase the retention of Agniveers after their performance in Operation Sindoor was found to be “excellent”. Why does the Army want more manpower, and what could be the potential changes for Agniveers? Read our report.
Drug bust: Mephedrone, a synthetic drug, has emerged as a key challenge for enforcement agencies in recent years. In the last five years alone, investigators have seized mephedrone worth Rs 9,522 crore from Maharashtra. At the heart of the drug network, which stretches to the UAE and Turkey, is believed to be mastermind Salim Dola, a wanted figure in the narcotics trade and linked to the Dawood Ibrahim gang. The Mumbai Crime Branch says it is closer than ever to apprehending Dola. Here’s how they connected the dots to reach the drug lord.
Balancing act: The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) finds itself in an uneasy position in its alliance with the BJP and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Recent moves by the Deputy Chief Minister, Pawar, including support of the Qureshi community against self-styled cow vigilantes and questioning orders to shut meat shops on Independence Day, are seen as efforts to project the NCP as unwaveringly secular. Zeeshan Shaikh explains what necessitates Pawar’s balancing act, and whether it has worked.
🎧 For more on the cow vigilante issue in Maharashtra, tune in to today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode.
Mounting troubles: Can a mountain of coal go missing? Authorities in Meghalaya are faced with a bizarre problem. Almost 4,000 metric tonnes — that’s 40 lakh kilograms — of illegally mined coal in the South West Khasi Hills district has gone missing. Was it “swept away by heavy rain” as excise minister Kyrmen Shylla suggested? The issue, at the centre of a political firestorm, even reached the Meghalaya High Court, which formed a one-member panel to monitor coal mining in the state.
Imagine the Indian government, the American CIA and the British MI5 working together. No, this isn’t the plot of a Netflix thriller. In the late 1950s, the trio teamed up to carry out a clandestine operation to spy on the communists in Kerala. I leave you with this column by Paul McGarr, author and lecturer, that has fascinating details on the operation.
That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta
