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Journalism of Courage
Good morning,
Back in 2021, javelin ace Neeraj Chopra struck gold in Tokyo, etching his name into Olympic history as India’s first track-and-field champion. When he returned to the same arena last evening, he carried both that legacy and a remarkable streak: since September 2018, Chopra had never finished outside the top three. That run ended. The 27-year-old finished eighth at the Tokyo Athletics Championships. The result, though disappointing, was not shocking, given his mixed year of 90m highs and nagging back issues. Still, Chopra’s towering medal haul cushions the blow, and India found fresh cheer in rising thrower Sachin Yadav. The youngster stunned world champions to place fourth with a personal best, hinting at a bright future for the spear squad.
On that note, let’s get to today’s edition. 👇
🚨 Big Story
The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi stepped up his attack on the Election Commission, accusing the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of protecting “vote chors”. In fresh allegations, Gandhi cited irregularities in electoral rolls from two Assembly constituencies — one in Karnataka and another in Maharashtra — as evidence.
Zoom in: Gandhi has alleged that there was an attempt to systematically delete Congress voters in Aland (Karnataka) in 2023. “Someone tried to delete 6,019 votes”, he said, adding that this was done “automatically through a software”. He said that the operation was caught by “coincidence” and an FIR was filed in the matter.
👉 Johnson T A details how an alert block-lever officer caught voter deletions in Aland.
Meanwhile, Gandhi has also claimed that over 6,800 voters were “fraudulently” added using the same automated software in Maharashtra’s Rajura.
👉 Shubhangi Khapre details the seat’s history and voter profile.
Zoom out: The allegations are part of what Gandhi has called “hydrogen bomb”, hinting that more revelations are to come. He says he has proof of irregularities in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and of the “mastermind” behind it. However, the allegations have left the Congress party split. While most support Gandhi, some are wary of the repercussions. Party leaders that The Indian Express spoke to had little clarity on Gandhi’s endgame.
EC’s reply: The EC has dismissed Gandhi’s charges, stating that “no deletion of any voter can be done online by any member of the public”. It said that the EC itself had filed the FIR in 2023 after only 24 of the over 6,000 applications for deletion were found to be genuine.
BJP’s counter: The ruling party has accused Gandhi of “protecting infiltrators” and trying to create chaos. BJP leader Anurag Thakur hit back at allegations that the EC was biased towards the Modi government, citing past instances of Congress giving three CECs political postings after their retirement.
🎧 For more on the voter chori row, tune in to today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode.
For this week’s Dis/Agree column, two experts dissect how we should view the anti-migrant sentiment spreading across Western countries.
Sanjay Srivastava, a Distinguished Research Professor at the SOAS University of London, writes about the convenience of turning migrants into villains, adding, “It is rarely asked: Who created the conditions for the making of refugees and asylum-seekers?”
Amit Julka, assistant professor at Ashoka University, writes about how immigration has historically been marked by periodic boom-and-bust cycles, driven by two necessities of industrial capitalism: Labour supply and preventing the working class’s consolidation.
Un-gagged: A Delhi court has set aside a September 6 order against four journalists, which had restrained them from publishing alleged defamatory content about Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) and directed them to remove “unverified” posts. Another court, hearing the plea of a fifth journalist, questioned AEL on whether it was sure that the alleged posts were defamatory.
Notably, the September 6 blanket gag order flew in the face of a Supreme Court ruling that upheld the ‘Bonnard principle’, according to which an injunction should not be granted “without establishing that the content sought to be restricted is ‘malicious’ or ‘palpably false'”.
In other news, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has dismissed allegations of stock manipulation and siphoning of funds, levelled by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research in January 2023, against Gautam Adani, his associates, and his company. Read about the allegations and the findings here.
The pact: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have signed a formal mutual defence agreement, declaring that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.” For Pakistan, it is the most consequential security commitment in decades, shoring up vital Saudi investment amid fiscal strain. For Riyadh, it bolsters defences against threats from Iran, Houthis, and regional turbulence. Shubhajit Roy explains how the pact reshapes ties.
And where does India stand? Sources say Saudi Arabia kept Delhi “in the loop” about the formalisation of the pact. Delhi views the move as a response to Washington’s retreat as a regional security guarantor. Read.
Aryan Khan’s debut directorial venture, Ba***ds of Bollywood, is out on Netflix for the world to view. Though a self-referential saga, the show fails at being “self-aware”, according to our in-house critic Shubra Gupta. She writes that watching glittering stars sending themselves up never gets old — and the show has many, from Aamir Khan to Ranveer Singh to, of course, SRK. However, when it comes to the structure beneath, the show deflates into “seen-before ordinariness”. Read her full review.
That’s all for today, folks! Happy weekend-ing!
Sonal Gupta
