WTF Just Happened: The news in briefs

#1. Unlike Gajendra Chauhan, you cannot question Anupam Kher’s curriculum vitae and fitness to chair the FTII — which, you will remember, is where the sequence of universities in turmoil began. Whether Kher’s overt support for the ruling dispensation, as was the case with the likes of Sambit Patra, Shazia Ilmi and others, played a hand in his landing the role is a matter of conjecture. Related, a student looks back at Chauhan’s reign of error.

#2. Reuters reports that the bad loan problem crippling Indian banks has now touched a record 9.5 trillion rupees ($145.56 billion) as of end June. What is interesting is that rather than begin to bring the problem under control, banks appear to be exacerbating the problem — rolled over bad loans, which had risen by 5.8 percent in the last six months of 2016, rose by a further 4.5 percent in the first six months of 2017.

#3. A cursory scan of the headlines indicates that the BJP is in propaganda overdrive, the aim being to refute criticism of demonetization and the GST. In fact (as fleetingly mentioned in my previous WTFJH), the PMO has ordered all ministries to go flat out on the propaganda front, buying experts and social media influencers if necessary to spread the message. The assiduous adherence to this directive — which reminds you of Arun Shourie’s 2015 criticism that the government is more intent on managing headlines than managing the economy) results, occasionally, in the risible. As for instance happened when Richard Thaler was awarded the Nobel Prize.

The BJP IT cell excavated a Thaler tweet backing demonetization and promptly gave it wide publicity (with ministers and even UP CM Adityanath chipping in to help). What was left out was that Thaler had welcomed the move as a means of moving towards a cashless economy; when it was pointed out to him that 1000 rupee notes had been demonetized only for 2000 rupee notes to be introduced, the economist’s reaction was a pithy “Oh damn!”

What is amusing, in a wry sort of fashion, is the BJP’s continued inability to understand that such fakery and falsification has an increasingly short shelf-life. When the machinery produced its famous ‘Best PM, says UNESCO’ post back in the day, it was days before people began pointing out that UNESCO has better things to do. These days, fakes are called out within minutes, and only manage to make the fakers look silly. And inept. And yet, they don’t learn.

#4. Speaking of ineptitude, the Jay Shah controversy is the unexpected gift that goes on giving. Home Minister Rajnath Singh is the latest to add to the quota of what-the-fuckery, with his gratuitous statement that Shah Junior is innocent, and there is no need whatsoever for any investigation — words that will, I suspect, be latched onto by the combined opposition the next time the BJP climbs on the corruption high horse. Yashwant Sinha, who appears to have thrown off the shackles completely, has some stinging criticism for the way the party has thrown its entire weight behind Shah, and given the tenor of the times, this is just the beginning. Here’s the thing: Why did Singh have to speak at all? Because, one suspects, it is not about the merits of the case so much as it is about proving loyalty to the party boss and his patron the prime minister.

#5. Sycophancy is a national failing (okay, a global one, but let’s stay with India), and it is not new. We once had a president suggesting that he would even become Indira Gandhi’s chappals in order to serve her. Petty men, men with no accomplishment and no spine, will fawn, and crawl — it is the nature of the beast. What baffles me is how people of stature, the object of such over the top adulation, never seem to repudiate such obsequiousness. The thought occurred to me when I read of the temple that is to be constructed with Modi as a 100-foot tall presiding deity. Oh and speaking of statues — Adityanath plans to build a grand statue of Ram on the banks of the Saryu, which when complete will hopefully fill UP’s most pressing need.

#6. India continues to slip down the World Press Freedom rankings, dropping three more places to #136 in the latest rankings. One consolation is that we are some 40 places ahead of China.

#7. I don’t know about you, but I am deriving considerable amusement from the BJP’s antics in re Rahul Gandhi. After a prolonged hibernation, when the Congress VP made a speech in Berkeley, he seems to have set off something. The entire Cabinet and publicity machinery went into overdrive to critique his speech and since then, the amount of time wasted by ministers, politicians and captive media to speak of Gandhi’s “irrelevance” is hilarious — if he were irrelevant, and the jury is out on that, wouldn’t you just ignore him?

The latest bit of tomfoolery is that for no reason that is discernible, the BJP decided to roll out its big guns, led by Amit Shah and Smriti Irani, in an anti-Gandhi campaign in Amethi wherein they spoke of how Gandhi would be defeated in the next election. The ploy is transparent — Gandhi has been traveling around Gujarat, where elections are due, and so the BJP in its wisdom decided to light up the CVP’s home turf in a bid to distract him. Thus far it seems like wasted effort. Meanwhile Irani, who has been silent for almost ever since the cabinet reshuffle and her partial rehabilitation, has been giving interviews to the Arnabs and suchlike members in good standing of the right wing media, all focused on how irrelevant Rahul Gandhi is. There was even an “exclusive” interview to Doordarshan, which scaled the heights or plumbed the depths, depending on your point of view — she is the minister in charge, no? To talk to your captive channel and then for it to tout that as an “exclusive” is, um.

#8. Aadhar is proving to be the gift that goes on giving — to some. Krishn Kaushik for the Indian Express breaks down how top UIADI functionaries have been milking the scheme for personal profit; a scary bit in there is the number of top people who are “on sabbatical” at a time when every other day brings with it stories of yet another data breach, another vulnerability exposed. I wonder who is actually running that shop now.

I’ll leave this here and, barring unforeseen news breaks, see you tomorrow.