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Journalism of Courage
Good morning,
The humble corn became a flashpoint in the ongoing India-US trade tensions after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick questioned, “India brags that they have 1.4 billion people. Why don’t 1.4 billion people buy one bushel of US corn?” Well, Lutnick isn’t entirely wrong — India’s maize imports are quite low. The US focus on maize is also understandable, given that China, once its biggest buyer, has scaled back purchases. Still, India is unlikely to yield to US pressure, as it does not permit imports of genetically modified corn. What deal, if any, emerges remains to be seen. In-person trade talks are set to resume today, just weeks after negotiations broke down, with a US trade delegation led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch arriving in New Delhi yesterday.
On that note, let’s get to the rest of today’s edition. 👇
🚨 Big Story
In an interim order on Monday, the Supreme Court stayed key provisions of the Waqf Amendment Act, while declining to stay the entirety of the law, in a victory claimed by both the Opposition and the Centre. The freeze will remain in place till all of the nearly 65 petitions against the Act are conclusively decided.
What has the court stayed?
👉 The Act empowered the District Collector to determine the status of a Waqf property. During the inquiry, the property would have lost its Waqf status. The court has stayed this specific provision, allowing the property to retain its status, pending inquiry.
👉 It has put limits on the number of non-Muslims that can be appointed to Waqf boards and the Central Waqf Council.
👉 The Act held that only a person “practicising Islam for at least five years” can create a Waqf. The court has stayed the provision, asking the government to establish rules or a clear mechanism for determining how a person’s religious practice will be assessed.
Notably, these provisions were also flagged by the Opposition during the Parliament debate. Read their arguments.
The court, meanwhile, refused to stay two key provisions that petitioners had strongly opposed. We explain.
Also read: SC’s interim order offers no relief from several problematic provisions of Waqf law by Faizan Mustafa
In the woods: A senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer and his wife, an officer at the Supreme Court, have come under fire from forest officials at Madhya Pradesh’s Panna Tiger Reserve for allegedly building a hotel/resort in an ecosensitive zone. The couple has denied the charge and has called the structure their “post-retirement home”. They have also filed a police complaint, accusing an inspection team that had arrived at their house of “high-handedness”. We bring you the facts of the case.
Long road to peace: National Highway-02 (NH-02) has long been the lifeline of Manipur. But ever since violence erupted in the state in 2023, this vital road has transformed into a fragile fault line. Today, it is punctuated by buffer zones that mark the territory — and the deep divide between the Meiteis and the Kukis. My colleague Sukrita Baruah set out on this road, tracing its fractured landscape.
Top notch? Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have complained that the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has issued an increasing number of Quality Control Orders (QCOs) in the last three years. MSMEs have flagged QCOs, which require imported and domestic products to meet certain quality standards and obtain BIS certification, as non-tariff barriers which push costs up.
Succession: The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) finds itself convulsed by a father-son rift. What appears on the surface as a power struggle between party founder S Ramadoss and his son Anbumani is, insiders say, being quietly shaped by the women of the Ramadoss household. On one flank stand Ramadoss’ first wife, Saraswathi, and daughter Gandhimathi. But it is his second wife, Susheela, whose influence is widely believed to have sharpened the conflict. Arun Janardhan takes a peek inside the family politics.
The foregone handshake at the recent India-Pakistan Asia Cup match has become a centre of controversy. Pakistan has filed a complaint with the ICC, alleging that match referee Andy Pycroft asked the captains “not to shake hands”. Indian team sources, however, have refuted the charge. At the heart of it all is a debate over the “spirit of sportsmanship”. Some say the sport is being weaponised in the political tussle between the two countries, while others say a handshake between warring nations would reek of hypocrisy. Sriram Veera writes about India bringing a new kind of civility to cricket.
Food, career, dating — there’s an app and infinite options for everything. Liberalisation brought more shelves to the Indian markets, digitalisation made them searchable, and social media made them endless and personal. We are in the age of abundance. But has that shrunk our appetite for choosing? Read.
🎧Before you go, do tune in to today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode, where reporters Aiswarya Raj and Dheeraj Mishra join the host to discuss their latest investigation into a government tender that invited three bidders — all linked to Ramdev aide Archarya Balkrishna.
That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta
