The arrest of an ISKCON monk in Bangladesh

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

The Clueless Founder: What is a Founders’ Agreement?

Welcome to our new series titled ‘The Clueless Founder’. A new founder’s life is both exciting and very complicated—and we’re all a little bit clueless. You’ve gotta figure out how to build, scale, raise paisa, make paisa, hire the right people, find the right partners—all at the same time. So we’re going to take a deep breath and break it down one episode at a time. Think of it as a no-BS, real life guide for any founder who is just starting out.

In this first episode, Lakshmi Chaudhry (splainer Founder) and Chitra Rajaram (Partner, Rajaram Legal) discuss the one document that both causes the most drama—and also saves you from the ugliest drama. And that’s the Founder’s Agreement. It's the startup equivalent of the shaadi prenup. Very icky and very necessary. Watch it below.

The arrest of an ISKCON monk in Bangladesh

The context: Bangladesh has been in a state of civil unrest since July. What started as angry student protests against reservation quotas turned into a nationwide movement—and the fall of longtime PM Sheikh Hasina. Hasina and other senior leaders of her party—Awami League—fled, leaving an interim government led by Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus to take control. The unrest has also seen heightened attacks on Hindus and other religious minorities. Hindus are the largest minority in Bangladesh, accounting for about 8% of the population.

What happened now: On Monday, Bangladesh police arrested an ISKCON monk named Chinmoy Krishna Das on sedition charges. He is accused of disrespecting Bangladesh’s national flag at a protest in October—as in, a religious flag was allegedly placed on top of it. Das is the spokesperson of an alliance of two Hindu bodies—advocating for minority rights. He is also head of the Pundarik Dham—operated by ISKCON in Chittagong.

The escalation: Das’ arrest has sparked violent confrontations between his supporters and police. In turn, three temples have been vandalised in Chittagong as retaliation by angry mobs—and at least two Muslim lawyers were hacked to death. FYI: Protesters claim the interim government—headed by Muhammad Yunus—is hostile to Hindus—who, in turn, are viewed as supporters of the greatly despised Hasina.

Meanwhile, in India: The rising violence has become grist for the geopolitical mill. Hasina—who is parked in Delhi—remains silent in exile. While the Indian government—which is offering shelter to Hasina—has called for the protection of Hindus. That said, all parties are unanimous in this matter—including Congress.

Why this matters: A deepening Hindu-Muslim divide will be catastrophic for Bangladesh—and cause serious damage to Dhaka-Delhi relations. Experts say that may, in fact, be the aim of some:

The radicals in the government are creating a narrative against India, Hinduism and Iskcon, which have become synonymous, to keep the youths on the streets in an agitated state.... That’s why they are blaming the Hindus and Iskcon for the killing and linking India to the incident. This is a conspiracy.

Reading list: BBC News and Al Jazeera have more on Chinmoy Krishna Das’ arrest—while The Telegraph offers dark theories for the violence. Do also check out our prior in-depth coverage of Sheikh Hasina’s ousting and the subsequent political crises in Bangladesh.

Look out: Three mandir-masjid time-bombs

The context: When the Supreme Court handed the Babri Mosque over to Hindu groups, the justices insisted that it was a one-off ruling. All other Muslim monuments were safe from such ‘buried temple’ claims. The Places of Worship Act 1991 bans the conversion of any place of worship—which must be maintained as it existed on August 15, 1947. But the same Court has since allowed a flood of similar lawsuits—the most famous being the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and Eidgah Masjid in Mathura. This Big Story has the Ram Mandir ruling—and this one explains the Gyanvapi claims.

What happened now: There are now three new claims—of temples hidden under mosques—escalating all at the same time.

Sambhal: Petitioners claim that the 16th century Jama Masjid in Sambhal in western UP was built at the site of an ancient Hari Har Mandir. One of the people filing the claim is also the plaintiff in the Mathura and Varanasi cases. As with Gyanvapi, the local judge has ordered a ‘survey’—which will inevitably open the door to discoveries of ‘remains’. The case has already sparked serious violence:

Conducted in the morning, the survey team was preceded by a local mahant (priest), one of the petitioners, and followed by some members chanting Jai Shri Ram slogans. A police party accompanied the surveyors. A large number of protestors gathered near the mosque. It soon resulted in stone pelting from the crowd. The police allegedly resorted to opening fire in which five men, including two teenagers, died.

Times of India has the latest.

Ajmer: The Hindu Sena has filed a petition claiming that a Shiva temple is buried under the Ajmer Sharif Dargah—the mausoleum of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. The case is similar to the Gyanvapi lawsuit—and is part of the broader attempt to reclaim Ajmer in its entirety: “Chishti saheb wasn’t born here and he wasn’t from here. So, who was here before him? Prithviraj Chauhan. And the city was known as Ajaymeru.” Needless to say, it has the support of the ruling BJP government in Rajasthan. Indian Express has lots more details on the mosque—and the claims.

Uttarkashi: This is the latest spin on the ‘buried temple’ campaign. In this case, the right-wing groups claim the decades-old mosque in Uttarakhand has been illegally constructed on government land. A planned ‘mahapanchayat’ demanding its demolition is likely to spark fresh violence. The Muslim groups say the jama masjid is built on Waqf land—and has been used as a place of worship for five decades. NewsClick has that story.

Who really owns that X account?

The context: In October 2022, rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was found guilty of defaming the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting. Jones was ordered to pay a whopping $1.4 billion in damages to the families, but he filed for bankruptcy. The Onion placed the winning bid—when his conspiracy theory website InfoWars went up for auction. Jones has challenged the sale—since The Onion plans to use the URL to relentlessly mock his kind.

What happened now: Elon Musk—ever addicted to political tamasha—has now entered the fray. He has filed a “limited objection” to the sale—specifically, the transfer of InfoWars’ social media handles to The Onion:

Although X said it did not oppose the sale as a “general matter”, it is arguing that its users do not own their accounts and cannot sell or transfer them without its permission. “X Corp.’s TOS [terms of service] make clear that it owns the X Accounts, as the TOS is explicit that X Corp. merely grants its users a non-exclusive license to use their accounts,” the company wrote in a filing to a federal court in Texas.

The term favoured by X lawyers: “superior ownership.” In other words, you could buy a company—but still have no ownership over its social media handles. A claim that is bizarre, unprecedented—and has implications for anyone who has a social media account. (404 Media, login required, Gizmodo)

In other Musk tidings: SpaceX may soon be sending a car to the moon—on orders from NASA. Irony alert: it won’t be a Tesla. These rovers were developed by the Japanese space agency—in collab with Toyota. And they will look something like this. (Quartz)

The great Sora rebellion

The context: Back in February, OpenAI teased its text-to-video tool called Sora. It can create up to one-minute long videos with “complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background.” But, but, but: To prevent misuse, the tool was only made available to visual artists, designers and filmmakers—for testing and feedback.

What happened now: On Tuesday, a group of these early access artists leaked its Application Programming Interface (API)—and created a frontend which allowed anyone to generate 10-second videos with Sora. Their reasoning: “OpenAI is pressuring Sora’s early testers, including red teamers and creative partners, to spin a positive narrative around Sora and failing to fairly compensate them for their work.”

The best bits of this drama are a) the demo video that range from this cool nod to Nirvana:

…to the amusing:

Sadly, the rebellion has been quashed by the tech overlords—and the Sora demo tool is no more. (TechCrunch)

what caught our eye

business & tech

Rest of World has a must-read on how Indian government agencies like the Election Commission are using the Chinese app CamScanner, which India had banned in 2020.
Another day, another round of funding for OpenAI—this time, Sam Altman’s startup will allow employees to sell shares worth $1.5 billion to SoftBank.
The Verge has a bizarre story on whether a content creator’s vibe can be copyrighted, even if the vibe is as basic as Amazon product influencers.
404 Media (login required) has a cool read on the trend of online casino Stake inserting its watermark onto viral memes as a form of advertising.

sports & entertainment

‘Tumbbad’ director Rahi Anil Barve’s next project—‘Gulkanda Tales’—is at risk of being cancelled by Amazon Prime.
The upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival will now have some Bollywood flavour—courtesy the premier of ‘Bun Tikki’, starring Abhay Deol, Zeenat Aman and Shabana Azmi.
Sporting records are made to be broken and T20 cricket is no different—Gujarat’s Urvil Patel has now scored the fastest century by an Indian, in just 28 balls.

as for the rest

After Netanyahu, the ICC prosecutor now seeks an arrest warrant for…Myanmar’s military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, for crimes against Rohingya people.
Pressure is mounting within the Shiv Sena (UBT) to leave the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance and go solo after its electoral defeat.
Volkswagen is exiting Xinjiang as global scrutiny grows over forced labor allegations and declining demand for gas-powered cars.
Authorities in Laos have detained eight staff members of a local backpacker hostel, in light of the deaths of six foreign tourists from methanol poisoning.
An update on the ruling family sh*tshow in Manila—Philippines police have filed a formal complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte after she threatened to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
A twice-yearly HIV shot, lenacapavir, cuts infection risk by 96%, but its use in India is uncertain since such type of medication isn’t in the national program.
Ewww, train blankets are washed just once a month. Seriously? This, despite added measures to improve hygiene, the Railway Minister told Parliament.
Pharma firm Amgen claims that its new drug MariTide—an intended competitor to Ozempic—helps patients lose 20% of their weight. But, but, but: Wall Street isn’t convinced—the firm’s stock fell after it released mid-stage trial results.
A prominent Alzheimer’s drug went “down in flames”: because the lead scientist fudged the trial data.
AI Large Language Models (LLMs) can now predict neuroscience study results better than human experts
A banana sold by a Manhattan vendor for 35 cents was auctioned as absurdist art for $6.2 million—a bananas amount!
If you have long ring fingers, you may be an aficionado of all things alcohol, according to a new study.
Glamour has a cool read on how to shampoo the correct way. Hint: pay close attention to your scalp.

Three things to see

One: On Wednesday morning, Seoul woke up to the heaviest snow in 100 years—with some areas witnessing snowfall between 10cm to 23cm (4 to 10 inches). Apart from felling trees and knocking out electricity in certain areas, 220 flights have been grounded across the country. (Reuters)

Two: Vir Das became the first Indian to host the International Emmys. We don’t have the full monologue yet but here’s a teaser clip of a Trump joke. Umm… not that original but right on brand. (Indian Express)

Three: Fans of serial killing anti-heroes rejoice! The prequel series ‘Dexter: Original Sin’—which tracks the origin story of Dexter Morgan—is slated to drop on December 13 on JioCinema. (IndieWire)