A Marxist rises in Sri Lanka

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath & Raghav Bikhchandani

A Marxist rises in Sri Lanka

Almost every headline on the Sri Lankan election contains the M-word—as in ‘Marxist’—to describe Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The political underdog beat out both opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe. Here’s what you need to know:

The outcome: After two rounds of voting, Dissanayake won 55% of the vote. He will be the country’s first Leftist president. Wickremesinghe came a distant third.

Out with the old: The election is a flat-out rejection of the old political guard—who are seen as leading the country to economic ruin. In 2022, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was pushed out of office by hundreds of thousands of protesting Sri Lankans—in an uprising called aragalaya (see: our Big Story).

They were not impressed by his rival and replacement Wickremesinghe either:

After the 2022 aragalaya, Wickremesinghe came to power and cobbled together a government across party lines, reaching a deal with the International Monetary Fund to begin lifting Sri Lankan out of its deep economic crisis. But Dissanayake and the NPP called the IMF deal, which involves higher taxes, “anti-people”. This political messaging gained a huge number of followers, especially among the youth, who had spearheaded the aragalaya. This, along with a spirited grassroots campaign, began to turn the tides.

Who is AKD? It has been a meteoric rise for a man who managed just 3% in the previous election. AKD has been an MP since 2000—and his Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party has been contesting elections for 30 years without much success. Dissanayake is described as “pro-working class and anti-political elite”

But, but, but: JVP is a rebranded version of a Sinhala Buddhist nationalist party with a history of violence. It led an armed insurrection in 1971—that resulted in 1,000 deaths. And the JVP aren’t exactly fans of India—which helped Colombo put the uprising down. Its members targeted the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) sent to the country by Rajiv Gandhi—to help the government win the civil war with Tamil separatists.

What AKD says: To his credit, AKD has tackled the party’s extremist past head-on:

We admit that several atrocities took place, things which should never have happened, happened. We admit that. It is now 25 years since this disastrous period, we have learnt several bitter lessons from it and we pledge that such incidents will never take place at the hands of the JVP.

Also this: “If we can fix the economy and make it work for all; build a country with no racism or religious intolerance; and set a course for social justice, I would consider it a success.” That’s definitely good news for the Tamil and Muslim minorities in Sri Lanka.

What’s next: For all of AKD’s good intentions, he has the tricky job of balancing the free market demands of the IMF—with the populist demands of his supporters. Sri Lanka needs the fourth tranche of $3 billion to avoid catastrophe—but it comes with strings attached.

Reading list: BBC News, Reuters, and New York Times (login required) have the best reporting on the poll result. The Print has a fabulous primer on AKD and his rebranded JVP party, while The Hindu gets specific about the party’s chequered history. Reminder: read our Big Story from 2022 on Sri Lanka’s economic crises and ousting of Gotabaya Rajapaksa for broader context.

A lafda over Tirupati laddus

The context: The Tirupati temple laddu—made with besan, cashew, sugar, and copious amounts of shudh desi ghee—is staple prasadam for devotees. FYI: the temple trust holds the patent on these laddus—which are also GI tagged.

What happened now: When Telugu Desam chief Chandrababu Naidu became Chief Minister in June, he sent samples of the ghee used in the laddus to a lab in Gujarat. A decision that remains unexplained to this day. This lab found that the ghee was “highly adulterated”—with “many kinds of fats including animal fats like tallow and lard.”

Then the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath stirred the pot further—claiming three tonnes of these laddus were part of the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. BJP and its ally Telugu Desam are pointing their finger at ex-CM Jagan Reddy—who also happens to be Christian. Hai Ram!

Point to note: Independent experts say that the reports show that the ghee is adulterated—but does not spell out exactly what it contains. It could be anything from soya bean, rapeseed and olive oil to beef tallow or lard. Also this:

[D]espite the lab report confirming the presence of ingredients such as lard... the average devotee seems unfazed. This is the time of the auspicious ‘Purattasi’ Tamil month and devotees have accepted the revered Srivari laddu as a maha prasadam (great offering). Data show that the sale of laddus at Tirumala have shown no fall even after the controversy erupted.

Caught in the crossfire: The ghee supplier—the Dindigul-based dairy AR Foods which recently replaced the Karnataka Milk Federation. The KMF had been a vendor for decades. They deny all allegations—but the temple trust had fled back into the arms of KMF—with a promise to restore the quality of laddus.

A political stunt: The fabulously wealthy and powerful temple is an ongoing source of political drama. Ahead of the 2019 general elections, Jagan Reddy targeted the Telugu Desam government—claiming an “invaluable pink diamond” had “gone missing” from the temple treasury. There was no mention of it once Jagan won the election.

For more: NewsLaundry has the best breakdown of the lab results. Hindustan Times has all about the significance of the laddu and the controversy. The Hindu offers political context.

Israel shuts down Al Jazeera in the West Bank

Having shut down Al Jazeera in Israel in May, the Israeli military has done the same in the occupied West Bank:

Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers forcefully entered the building housing Al Jazeera’s bureau and handed the 45-day closure order to the network’s West Bank bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, early on Sunday. Al-Omari said the Israeli military’s closure order accused the network of “incitement to and support of terrorism”.

Omary was live on air when it all happened—as you can see below. Al Jazeera and Reuters have more.

Meanwhile in Lebanon: Tel Aviv and Hezbollah continue to pound each other across the border. Over the weekend, Israel struck around 290 targets—while Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets. Why this matters: “With at least 84 people killed in Lebanon over the past week, the conflict toll in the country since October has surpassed 750 during the worst Israel-Hezbollah flare-up since a 2006 war.” (Reuters)

Netflix India faces discrimination claim

The context: The former India director of business and legal affairs—Nandini Mehta—is suing the company in the US—for alleged “wrongful termination as well as racial and gender discrimination.” Netflix has denied "each and every allegation" and said Mehta was fired for “repeatedly using her corporate credit card for tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.”

What happened now: Reuters has unearthed a 2020 email sent by the Indian government—specifically the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO)—saying it was looking into “company's conduct, visa violation, illegal structures, tax evasion and other malpractices including incidents of racial discrimination that company has been engaged in while conducting its business in India.” FYI: the FRRO works closely with the Intelligence Bureau—which spells even bigger trouble.

Why does this matter: This is a 2020 email—and no one has responded to queries about this investigation. But it shows that Netflix has been under pressure on a variety of fronts—which could explain its eagerness to comply with the government’s every demand. OTOH, these violations may indeed be legitimate—and could have opened the door for New Delhi to walk in with a big stick. (Reuters)

In happier news for free speech: The Bombay High Court has struck down the government’s plans to set up its own ‘fact-checking’ bureau—that will decide which online content constitutes misinformation. Ofc, Supreme Court abhi baaki hai. Bar and Bench (paywall) and The Hindu have more. Check out our Big Story from January 2023 for more context on the amended IT rules.

Oops, BookMyShow does it again!

Coldplay fans are furious at the company for totally effing up the ticket sale for the upcoming concerts—slated for January 18 and 19 in Mumbai. Its app and website crashed just seconds before the sale was slated to go live at noon yesterday. When it came back online, users had to wait in an online queue—of more than 10 lakh fans. Like Jay (name changed)—who waited patiently until he was #50,000—only to be met with a ‘Sold Out’ message. The really infuriating bit: Tickets were available on third party sites at astronomical prices—even before they officially went on sale.

To soothe greatly irate fans, Coldplay announced an additional show on January 21 due to the “phenomenal demand”—which was also sold out in seconds. So sad! Why this matters: BookMyShow has a virtual monopoly over entertainment ticketing in India—and has repeatedly effed up big events, be it the AR Rahman concert in Chennai or World Cup tickets. No wonder Zomato thinks it has an excellent chance of kicking its ass. (The Hindu)

What caught our eye

business & tech

404 Media (login required) has a must read on the shutdown of Wordfreq—an open source project that analysed human language usage. The reason: shoddy generative AI has polluted the data.
Another day, another acquisition—this time, it’s Oyo’s $525 million deal for the US-based Motel 6.
In other acquisition news, chipmaker Qualcomm wants to take over the fledgling Intel.
Amid continued problems for the rest of India’s edtech sector (see: our Big Story posts on Unacademy and Kota), unicorn Physics Wallah has raised $210 million for a $2.5 billion valuation and targets an IPO for early next year.
Cash-strapped Vodafone Idea has inked a $3.6 billion deal with Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung for network gear.
Microsoft has struck a deal to revive nuclear power at Three Mile Island—45 years since the US’ worst nuclear accident. The reason: Microsoft needs all the power it can get to build AI data centres and offset its carbon emissions (see this Big Story by Samarth Bansal on the hidden energy cost of AI).

sports & entertainment

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s previously lost album ‘Chain of Light’ is now available, thanks to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records.
Rishikesh’s ‘Beatles ashram’—where the iconic band spent two months in 1968 learning transcendental meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi—is getting a facelift for tourism.
Javier Bardem has denounced Israeli “genocide” in Gaza—in an address to the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Say hello to Lionel Messi’s new production company—525 Rosario—that will produce unscripted documentaries and family-friendly content.
The Guardian has a good read on “football-mad” Morocco’s dream to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup final. Check out our Big Story for more on Moroccan football, in light of the men’s team reaching the semifinals in Qatar 2022.

as for the rest

The Observer has a must-read by former Vanity Fair UK editor Henry Porter on the magazine’s decades of reporting on rape allegations against billionare businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, for which Al-Fayed sued the magazine.
Russian cosmonauts have smashed the record for the longest ever stay on the International Space Station (ISS) at 374 days.
According to new research of satellite imagery, several archaeological sites in eastern Ukraine have been damaged by the Russian military.
In a new report, scientists have highlighted four germs that are a major cancer risk—HPV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and H pylori.
Tragedy strikes in Iran—at least 31 people have been killed in a coal mine blast.
An update on the 2023 OceanGate submersible implosion (see our Big Story)—an ex-contractor for OceanGate has revealed that the ill-fated sub’s navigation relied on…a hand-typed Excel sheet.
The recent controversy around Netflix’s ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack” has prompted fresh concerns by streaming platforms about regulation and creative freedom. For more, check out our Big Story posts on the broadcast bill from December 2023, March 2024, and August 2024.
Scientists have identified the deadliest hunters among all apex predators. And the winners are…those who hunt alone, such as bears, tigers and Eurasian lynx.
Scroll has a good read on how for the first time ever, India is counting pastoral livestock.

Three things to see

One: Balle balle for ‘Tumbbad’ fans! The 2018 folk horror film—hailed as “groundbreaking” both at home and at the Venice International Film Festival—is getting a sequel. Actor-producer Sohum Shah will reprise his lead role but director Rahi Anil Barve won’t be around for the sequel. Watch the promo below. (Economic Times)

Two: After his driving accident—and long recovery—hamara Rishabh is back to his old antics. Midway through scoring a century on the third day of the Test match versus Bangladesh, Pant decided to help Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto set his field. The funny bit: Shanto followed his advice. (Hindustan Times)

Three: It’s not all about Moo Deng. To prove hippos do not have the monopoly on cuteness, we present two adorable rhinos—to belatedly mark World Rhino Day (which was on Sunday). Meet Amara—who just underwent a first-of-its-kind leg surgery in England. How cute is her cast? (Gizmodo)

And this is hamara one-horned Indian rhino, chilling at Kaziranga, courtesy our Pradhan Mantri.