Daily briefing: Whistleblowers behind Panama Papers, Uber Files; Derek O’Brien on why TMC is abstaining from VP polls

1) Seven years ago, an anonymous whistleblower calling themself ‘John Doe’ leaked more than 2.6 TB of data that became the Panama Papers about offshore trail of unaccounted wealth. This week he came forward for the first time in an interview with Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer of Der Spiegel, the two reporters he had first shared the data with. He continued to call himself John Doe and said that he may have to wait “until my death bed” to reveal his identity.

🔴  What did he say? The man who blew the whistle on the law firm’s entire clientele and network says compiling the data for the giant media leak “felt like looking down the barrel of a loaded gun”. 

Interestingly, John Doe has revealed that he had first offered the Panama Papers data dump to at least three premier publications, including Wikileaks, all of whom had seemed “uninterested” in the project.

🔴  Not alone: John Doe isn’t the only whistleblower that came forward this month. Mark MacGann, who worked with Uber as a senior lobbyist for years, was named in an interview with The Guardian as the person who had leaked the 1,24,000 documents that are now described as the Uber Files. 

2) A day after the NDA’s candidate in Presidential elections, Droupadi Murmu, won the contest handsomely against the Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha, and also a day after the Trinamool Congress announced its decision to abstain in the upcoming Vice President’s election, senior TMC leader and the party’s Rajya Sabha leader, Derek O’Brien, tells The Indian Express why and how that decision came about.

🔴  Why the TMC is abstaining from the Vice President polls: “There was no question of voting for the BJP’s Vice Presidential candidate. That is an ideological impossibility. Also, (NDA candidate) Jagdeep Dhankhar’s role as West Bengal Governor is a travesty to the Constitution. So we had two options: either abstain, or to support a candidate whose name was conveyed to us 15 minutes before a press conference in Delhi.”

🔴  TMC’s demand: “Treat us as equal partners and we will smoothly work together to expose BJP on matters where they have failed this country. The BJP has botched up [on many fronts, leading to issues] like unemployment, price-rise, federal structure, media freedom, credibility of institutions, and more.”

🔴  The TMC is officially holding firm on its decision to abstain from the vice-presidential elections, but the move has engendered fears in the organisation that it will be viewed as giving the BJP a walkover at a time the Opposition party is on the back foot in the state. A senior party functionary also expressed concern about how it will affect the party’s hold on the minority vote bank.

3) In the latest edition of IE Thinc: Gender, panellists shared how self-help groups and women’s cooperatives have worked for their financial inclusion, economic stakeholdership and increased role in governance. “My mission is to ensure that no rural woman, who wants to connect with the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) is left behind,” said Minister of Rural Employment and Panchayati Raj, Giriraj Singh. Meanwhile, Madhu Krishna, the Deputy Director, Gender Equality at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, highlighted the importance of schemes like MNREGA. 

4) In our opinion section today, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP, Manoj Kumar Jha, writes on why the Rajya Sabha matters: “Through its voice of intellectual reasoning, the Rajya Sabha acts as an instrument to provide compelling insights, discuss the ethics and morals underlying any topic, and review and influence public policy through a multidimensional lens. Through its rich quality of ideas and debate, the discussions in the Rajya Sabha mould the thinking of students, political enthusiasts, and the general masses.”

🍿 What to watch this weekend 

5) This week, Shalini Langer reviews the Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Shamshera’: Subtlety is not something that this Rs 150 crore Yash Raj film, bringing Ranbir to the big screen after a long four years, and walking in the looming shadow of RRR, has any use for. Against sets that are almost comically fake, of rugged hills, desert forts and ragged existence, everything is dramatic and exaggerated – interspersed with songs and music that are equally loud.

The Express Saturday Quiz

The Lok Sabha on Friday cleared its first Bill during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament. What Bill is it? 

• The Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022
• The Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022
• The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022

(🤫 Pssst… the answer is in today’s edition of The Indian Express. Get it here)

Until next time,

Rahel Philipose and Vidya Gowri

Until tomorrow,

Rahel Philipose and Vidya Gowri