Adani 'Coal Scam' - What Rahul Gandhi Failed To Check

The 24x7 thrill of 2024 is far from over

Dear Readers,

We're in the endgame.

Voters in more than 78% of the seats have already voted and sealed the fate of 428 candidates. Now 115 remain in phases 5 and 6 — to be held on May 25 and June 1.

But the 24x7 thrill of 2024 is far from over.

• AAP had expected to galvanise support after Arvind Kejriwal's interim bail. Instead, it got caught in yet another quagmire — Swati Maliwal case.

• BJP issued a show cause notice to Union Minister Jayant Sinha for not voting and being absent from the election campaign.

• The ruling party has also expelled the Bhojpuri star Pawan Singh for contesting against the NDA candidate in Bihar.

• Raghav Chadha, after a prolonged absence, has returned — "Arvind Kejriwal Will Vote For Congress... Rahul Gandhi For AAP," he said in his first election rally.

• PM Modi launched a rather sharp attack on BJD — "a person belonging to Odisha, who knows tradition and culture of the state, will become the Chief Minister," he said taking a potshot at CM Patnaik's close aide from Tamil Nadu VK Pandian.

Ahead in today's newsletter, we'll talk about:

• Rahul Gandhi's Adani allegation has backfired

• A Marxist historian tries to whitewash Kashmir Hindu genocide.

• Podcast: How Shiv Sena suffers Uddhav Thackeray's (new found) secularism

Have a great evening! The summers are about to end - at-least here in South India we have regular showers and the mercury levels have fallen significantly.

- Amar Govindarajan & Anmol Jain.

FT report on Adani is a lesson for Rahul Gandhi... and others — stop attacking wealth creators

A report by Financial Times on Adani which should've enthused Rahul Gandhi has instead put him in a spot.

A few months back, Gandhi had attacked Adani Group for over-invoicing coal prices.

The scam: FT claims that Adani doubled its money through grade inflation citing 22 shipments totaling 1.5 million tonnes.

• It alleges that Adani bought low-quality coal from Indonesia, labeled it as high-quality, and sold it at inflated prices for huge profits.

• Report also accuses Adani of earning profits at the expense of air quality as low-grade coal means burning more fuel.

• Adani’s contract with Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution company (Tangedco) specified high-quality fuel but delivered low-calorie coal instead.

What Rahul Gandhi forgot: The invoices were made in January 2014.

• Congress-led UPA was in power then as opposed to Gandhi's claims that Adani was being protected by Modi

• Rahul Gandhi had previously accused Adani of a Rs 32,000 crore fraud: "Gautam Adani buys coal in Indonesia and by the time it reaches India, its price doubles."

• Meanwhile, Congress ruled state governments in Rajasthan and Telangana actively court Adani.

Bottom line: Vague accusations and deliberate vilification of large businesses must stop.

• India needs its 'national champions'

Marxist historiography refuses to die...

It's an old trick.

Whitewash religious persecution of Hindus at the hands of Islamic rulers by saying that both Hindu kings and Muslim kings were equally cruel and heartless.

This is what a video titled 'What do a Hindu King and a Muslim sultan have in common? Both looted Kashmir’s temples' published on The Print tries to do.

Crux of the video:

• Kashmir’s Hindu kings also looted temples,

• Both Hindu era and Muslim era were equal in persecution,

• Medieval era is too 'complex' to decipher — we should leave it at that.

Swarajya's response: Our long time friend and noted Kashmir affairs expert Sunanda Vashisht calls out this staple gaslighting technique of "Romila Thapar school of fakery". Key features of this fakery are below.

• Glaring errors and oversights are abound in the video by Anirudh Kanisetti.

• He incorrectly attributes Srivara's Zain Rajatarangini to Pandit Jonaraja. There are multiple Rajataranginis and correct attribution is basic.

• Kanisetti gives example of one solitary Hindu king who is said to have looted temples — Harsha who ruled Kashmir from 1089-1101 CE.

• While Kanisetti dismisses Rajataranginis as biased accounts, this one information on Harsha, he happily gulps down.

In her powerful essay, Sunanda Vashisht takes this 'genocide denial' head-on by going through the Kashmir's Islamic era which saw continual genocide of indigenous Kashmiri Pandits.

Podcast: Shiv Sena's 'tolerance' of Uddhav's secularism

How far has Uddhav Thackeray taken Shiv Sena from his father's ideological position?

• He likened the saffron flag of RSS to a dusting cloth recently. (And has backtracked)

Uddhav had crossed a line: Even for those few who've stayed with him after he bid adieu to Hindutva and allied with Congress and NCP.

• Uddhav is the son of Bal Keshav Thackeray, once referred to as the 'Hindu Hriday Samrat'.

• His father had proudly claimed that a Shiv Sainik had struck the first blow to the Babri masjid.

• But Uddhav is today, in Indian political terms, a secularist.

How is his party reacting to this ideological departure?

• Krishna Dange and Diksha Yadav explain UBT Shiv Sena's ideological quandary.

• Tune in to Swarajya app or Spotify to listen!