Supreme Court ruling on the Kanwariya controversy

Researched by: Aarthi Ramnath, Anannya Parekh, Aakriti Anand & Raghav Bikhchandani

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Supreme Court ruling on the Kanwariya controversy

The context: Every year during the Hindu month of Sawan (around July-August), devotees called Kanwariyas, collect holy water from the Ganga at temple towns in the Himalayas. They take the water back to their hometown to offer it to Shiva idols.

The devotees—mostly young men—wear saffron and walk barefoot, carrying water-filled matkas for hundreds of kilometres. They rest at roadside camps—and eat from local dhabas and carts along the way. The yatra passes through Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan. These have often been marked with violence and vandalism in the past.

What happened next: Last week, the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments ordered all shops and carts on the yatra route to display the names of their owners. The reason: it offers important information for fasting Hindus who may want to eat at a pure vegetarian restaurant. After much political hue and cry, the orders were made “voluntary.” But, but, but:

Those who ignored the directives either had to pay hefty fines or face legal proceedings. The directives were compulsory in nature though couched in language suggesting shop owners could take a voluntary decision.

What happened now: The Supreme Court passed an interim order suspending the directives. Ruling on petitions filed by activists and netas like Mahua Moitra, the Court said:

The court said it was permissible for authorities to ensure that Kanwariyas were served vegetarian food, conforming to standards of hygiene and according to their dietary preferences. However, the police could not usurp the powers of municipal authorities through orders that restrict freedoms without the support of law.

Point to note: The petitioners had argued that the directive discriminated against show owners: “There is a Catch-22 situation here... If I don’t put my name, I will be fined. If I put my name, I may be discriminated against owing to my religious identity or caste,” But a BBC News ground report shows that even Muslim employees in Hindu-owned shops lost their jobs:

A food stall owner said he had removed four of his Muslim employees, including the manager of his eatery. “You need to understand our situation. We don’t want any controversy,” he said on condition of anonymity.

The bigger question: who benefits from these orders? As the News 24 report below shows, some Kanwariyas even include Muslims in their yatra. (The Hindu)

US election update: Kamala takes centrestage

The Democrats have rallied around Kamala Harris. She was quickly endorsed by a number of her potential rivals for the nomination—including Governors Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer. The grand matriarch of the Dem family—Nancy Pelosi—has also come around.

The number that counts: Harris raised a record $81 million in a single day—evidence of immense relief among donors. She was helped by speedy action by a tight-knit posse of female donors out of California—including Steve Jobs’ widow—Laurene Powell Jobs. Point to note: As the running mate on Joe Biden’s ticket, she has access to the $96 million in his campaign kitty, as well. That’s a huge advantage—as her rivals will start from zero.

But, but, but: A number of powerful male donors are still not on the Harris bandwagon—including former Mayor Michael R Bloomberg of New York and Silicon Valley leaders such as Reed Hastings and Vinod Khosla. But the most worrying number: an approval rating below 39%. Nate Cohn in New York Times has more on why the Dems shouldn’t be overly optimistic. Financial Times (splainer gift link) has more on the road ahead for Harris. Also, ICYMI: we profiled Harris in this Big Story before she became Veep.

The next big Q: Who will she pick to be her running mate? What we know for sure: It will be a white man—preferably from a swing state. Hence, the hilarious memes:

Not to be left behind, happy Indians rolled out their own memes (a play on this):

Also funny to note: Donald and his daughter Ivanka donated thousands of dollars to Harris’ political campaigns in California—between 2011 and 2014.

Kamala is brat! Harris got the coolest endorsement from popstar Charli XCX who gave her the ultimate compliment: “kamala IS brat”—a reference to her latest album. ‘Brat’ in this context means this:

[B]rat is a concept that represents a person who might have "a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra". It has been deemed by some pop critics as a rejection of the "clean girl" aesthetic… a groomed ideal of femininity, and instead embraces more hedonistic and rebellious attitudes. “You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things some times,” Charli explained on social media.

Well, here’s Kamala expressing a cleaned-up version of her inner brat:)

PS: Unsurprisingly, her critics are already digging up details of her personal life—including the time she dated talk show host Montel Williams. Umm, she’s up against Donald Trump! See Williams teaching the paps how to pronounce ‘Kamala’ back in the day:

The Economic Survey: Key takeaways

The context: The Economic Survey of India is the government’s assessment of the state of the economy—released by the Chief Economic Advisor each year, ahead of the Union Budget. It lays the foundation for how the government plans to spend its money in the next fiscal year. FYI: The government is getting ready to present the second budget of the year—the first ‘interim’ version was unveiled in March. This is the one that counts.

What happened now: Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran had this to say in Parliament yesterday:

The key numbers: The economy is set to grow between 6.5% to 7% over the current fiscal year—which is lower than the 8.2% predicted last year. The growth has been mostly driven by sarkari spending—since India Inc’s capex is abysmally low. The government spent Rs 9.5 trillion (9.5 lakh crore) on infrastructure, land and other fixed assets—also known as capital expenditure.That’s a 2.8X jump from FY2020.

Redefining inflation: The report acknowledged a high-ish inflation rate—primarily due to rising prices of food items. The government’s solution: exclude food from the consumer price index basket. The reason for this odd pitch: The government wants the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates—which it won’t as long as inflation is high. Indian Express has more on that angle. Also see: Problems in how we calculate inflation—and controversy over the government’s inflation numbers.

Rethinking AI: The government is far less enamoured with the idea of AI disruption that tech titans—which could be disastrous given our problem of “jobless growth”:

Noting that IT sector hiring has slowed significantly in the last two years, the CEA urged Indian industry to think harder about how AI can augment labour rather than displace workers and wrote: “Deploying capital-intensive and energy-intensive AI is probably one of the last things a growing, lower-middle-income economy needs.”

The Hindu has that story.

In related news: The government has lifted the 58-year-old ban on government employees taking part in RSS activities—indicating Hindutva organisations still need.humans to get the job done. Needless to say, the Opposition is outraged. (Mint)

Ogilvy offers influencer insurance

The ad agency has unveiled a new service called Influencer Shield—to protect brands from “rogue influencers.” What that means:

The service claims to offer round-the-clock monitoring of social media activity, alongside a dedicated team to deal with crises and develop strategies to respond to brewing PR disasters. The service also aims to help protect influencers themselves from any inadvertent backlash from their activities… Ogilvy will also vet potential partners by trawling through their social media history to uncover problematic material.

Data point to note: Ogilvy’s client list spends an average of 35% of their marketing budget on influencer marketing. (Financial Times, paywall)

Two AI stories of note

Responsible AI in India: We have a new and very wordy organisation—Coalition for Responsible Evolution of AI (CoRE-AI). It includes big tech—like Google and Amazon—and desi IT giants a la Infosys—plus startups, of course. Also in the mix: academic institutions like IIM-Bangalore and Ashoka. The coalition is basically the Indian equivalent of the Frontier Model Forum.

All of which is an industry-wide promise to behave—to ensure minimal government regulation. Hence, this kind of jargon about ‘nuance’:

The Coalition will differentiate between regulating AI and regulating responsible AI practices, aiming to establish overarching principles for ethical AI development and deployment. This nuance will be essential as it shifts the focus from merely imposing restrictions on AI technologies to fostering an environment where ethical considerations, fairness, and transparency are integral to AI development and deployment.

The Hindu has lots more on the coalition.

In other AI-related news: According to a new study, AI software can detect prostate cancer with 84.7% accuracy—which is way higher than physicians. A manual exam fell between 67.2% and 75.9%. One reason: “Doctors tend to use MRI’s to understand the size of a tumor. Still, some tumors are ‘MRI-invisible’”. (Quartz)

what caught our eye

business & tech

An ET exclusive claims that Amazon is interested in either acquiring Instamart—or buying a hefty stake—before Swiggy has its IPO.
Boeing staged an impressive comeback—scoring orders for up to 80 Dreamliner and 777 double-aisle planes from Japan Airlines and Korean Air. Take that, Airbus!
India’s biggest crypto exchange—WazirX—has suspended operations after losing $230 million—nearly half of its reserves—in a security breach.
A good read: The Economist (login needed) looks at what happened in Canada—after Meta yanked all news content from Insta and Facebook. Hint: It’s not good news for news.
WhatsApp is mulling plans to let users connect without a phone number.

sports & entertainment

Rafael Nadal was beaten by Nuno Borges in the Swedish Open final—Rafa’s first since 2022. Everyone wanted him to win—even his rival.
Leander Paes and Vijay Amritraj became the first Asian men to admitted to the International Tennis Hall of Fame
Tadej Pogačar won the Tour de France just a day ago—but won’t be able to compete in the Paris Olympics due to fatigue.

as for the rest

Over 4,500 Indian students have returned from Bangladesh—which was rocked by violent anti-reservation protests. They have now been suspended for 48 hours by student leaders.
In a new report, Doctors Without Borders has revealed that civilians have suffered “horrendous levels” of violence in the ongoing civil war in Sudan—made worse by the collapse of healthcare systems in the region.

Five things to see

One: A fire broke out on the naval frigate INS Brahmaputra—while it underwent repairs at the Mumbai dockyard. It experienced “severe listing”—and now is laying flat on one side—which is quite astonishing given the fact that it weighs around 5,300 tonnes. (Economic Times)

Two: PM Modi got a little choked up in Parliament—complaining about being choked by the Opposition. (The Telegraph)

Three: TIME Magazine put out a clever twist on its already witty cover image. On the right is the cover after the disastrous Biden debate. On the left is the response to his exit from the race. (HuffPost)

Four: Elon Musk shared an excellent AI vid of a mock fashion show. The models: everyone from Obama to Modi and the Pope. The likely reason why Elon loved it so: Biden is in a wheelchair.

Five: Things got icy in the French parliament as leaders voted to give Emmanuel Macron the green light to form the government. No one would shake hands with Flavien Termet—the MP from the right-wing party National Rally. We were impressed with Francois Piquemal—who found a unique way to duck the hand-shake—as you can see in this video. This Big Story has everything you need on the French election. (NDTV)