Gaurav Gogoi: ‘Dhankhar's resignation shows unease between govt and V-P … Congress will defend dignity of a Constitutional post'
The Opposition has been demanding a discussion on the Bihar electoral roll revision. Has the government responded so far?
We have not received any indication from the government about whether they are willing to discuss this issue. It is an issue related to the core of democracy. It is about a citizen's right to vote… While the government publicly says they are willing to discuss any issue, during closed-door meetings, they have refused to even mention this issue, that it would be taken up for discussion.
Since the EC is conducting the Bihar roll revision, if a discussion happens, who will reply on its behalf?
It is for the government to decide… It is not for us to decide. We want a discussion, and we will not be fulfilling our responsibility if we let the government steal votes.
The Vice-President has quit and the Congress has said there's more to it than meets the eye. What does that mean?
Principally, we have had differences with the Honourable V-P regarding proceedings in the Rajya Sabha. For us, principles of Parliamentary democracy are important and so is the dignity of a Constitutional post. And the sudden resignation, and the cryptic tweets of PM Narendra Modi. It shows the unease in the relationship between the government and the Constitutional post of V-P. It seems like a game of one-upmanship. And PM is displaying his political might in this decision. If the relationship were normal, the government would have known this was on the mind of the V-P and a smooth transition would have been ensured … The Congress will defend the dignity of a Constitutional post, especially when it is held by a farmer's son …
The process for the removal of Justice Yashwant Varma was initiated by the government in the Lok Sabha. The Opposition led by the Congress introduced a similar motion in the Rajya Sabha.
When this matter came to light, the Opposition started discussing what options it had. In the Lok Sabha, we supported the motion. The Opposition also took the initiative to introduce a similar motion in the Rajya Sabha.
The Samajwadi Party, your key ally, is not supporting the motion.
We are in constant touch with the SP on all issues. Especially on issues that need to be discussed urgently, such as Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor, and Bihar SIR.
Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express.
During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state.
During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute.
Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor.
Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More
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Indian Express
15 minutes ago
- Indian Express
India-US trade deal: Commerce Ministry advised against accepting ‘unilaterally framed obligation' on digital taxes
Legal advisers to the Commerce and Industry Ministry have suggested that Indian negotiators dealing with their US counterparts should not accept Washington's proposal that prohibits India from reintroducing equalisation levy-style taxes, such as the 'Google tax', in the future, a person aware of the negotiations told The Indian Express. The advice was offered on the grounds that the provisions drafted by the US did not state that both parties should refrain from applying digital taxes on each other. Rather, they sought a legal commitment only from the Indian side and were seen as a 'unilaterally framed obligation', the source said. While the US offers a range of digital services in India and American tech companies have long lobbied against any taxes on such services, India also exports a wide range of digital services to the US — particularly in the IT sector — generating the majority share of its total services exports earnings from the US market. Another concern raised with the government was that agreeing to such unilateral provisions could set a risky precedent for future trade negotiations, where similar demands could be made by other trading partners during talks with New Delhi, thereby complicating future negotiations. In a move to assuage US concerns about India being a high-tariff nation, the Central government in March proposed abolishing the equalisation levy on online advertisements as part of the amendments to the Finance Bill, 2025. An equalisation levy is a measure to 'equalise' the tax treatment of resident and non-resident e-commerce companies. As part of the 35 amendments to the Finance Bill, 2025, the Centre proposed removing the 6 per cent equalisation levy (EL) it charges on digital ads, effective from 1 April 2025. A query emailed to the Commerce and Industry Ministry remained unanswered till press time. 'Digital taxation is typically discussed outside the framework of a trade agreement. It is a nation's sovereign right to decide on such matters, and India should reserve that right. Bringing it under the scope of a trade agreement weakens your position. We need to examine the digital trade chapters of the US and Australia, which India must study carefully. Australia has provided the US with a carve-out that allows for protections for US services. We also need to secure our IT/ITeS and technology exports from taxation in the US, our largest market' Arpita Mukherjee, professor at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) said. Notably the US has forced Indonesia to several steep terms on digital trade. Indonesia has committed to address barriers impacting digital trade, services, and investment, a White House statement said. 'Indonesia will provide certainty regarding the ability to transfer personal data out of its territory to the United States. Indonesia has committed to eliminate existing HTS tariff lines on 'intangible products' and suspend related requirements on import declarations; to support a permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions at the WTO immediately and without conditions; and to take effective actions to implement the Joint Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation, including submitting its revised Specific Commitments for certification by the World Trade Organization (WTO),' the White House statement read. The United States Trade Representative (USTR), in its report on non-tariff barriers, had earlier cited the 6 per cent equalisation levy as a discriminatory measure against US firms. The USTR report said that most digital services taxes are designed in ways that discriminate against US companies, often singling out American firms for taxation while excluding domestic companies engaged in similar lines of business. The US has also raised concerns about digital services taxes with a number of trade partners, particularly the EU. 'The disproportionate capture of US firms by the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) is also noted as undermining US competitiveness due to increased compliance costs not borne by EU competitors,' the USTR said. Differences between India and the US assume significance as New Delhi continues to face the risk of 26 per cent reciprocal tariffs. After Indian negotiators completed another round of discussions in Washington last week, a US team led by the US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, Brendan Lynch, is expected to visit India in mid-August to continue negotiations for a trade agreement. While India and the US have agreed on a wide range of tariff lines, the negotiations — which currently only involve market access for goods — remain stuck over sensitive sectors such as agriculture and automobiles, which are key job creators in India. Ravi Dutta Mishra is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, covering policy issues related to trade, commerce, and banking. He has over five years of experience and has previously worked with Mint, CNBC-TV18, and other news outlets. ... Read More
Indian Express
15 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Nagesh Kukunoor at Idea Exchange: ‘The climate has lent itself to many lawsuits, making it more terrifying for filmmakers'
Filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor on his recent series The Hunt- The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case, keeping it apolitical and why we haven't cracked the true underdog sports story. The sesion was moderated by Alaka Sahani, Associate Editor, The Indian Express. Alaka Sahani: You have managed to keep your new web series — The Hunt- The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case — quite apolitical, given that it follows the investigation after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a gruesome manner. How did you decide on its tone and treatment? I've always been clear about avoiding politics and religion. It's one of those areas where you're absolutely going to upset someone. It really doesn't matter how objective you try to be. What excited me about The Hunt was the investigation. I was around when the assassination happened and understood snatches of it. However, reading Anirudhya Mitra's book (Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi's Assassins) and realising what had really happened in those 90 days were two completely different things. When I read it, my mind was blown. The hunt itself was so interesting for me that I kind of saw the path forward, to not touch upon any political angles. It starts with a political assassination and people assume that the rest of it is a political show, but it's mainly the assassination. After the show came out, I just kept my fingers crossed for the first two weeks. We're not out of the woods yet but hoping that everything will go smoothly. Alaka Sahani: You had your primary source material in the form of a book. But what kind of research and filtering process went into it? I co-wrote it with two other writers, and when you have a book that you base everything on — and this is also for legal purposes — you do whatever the requisite research is. You read the articles, some of the SIT members themselves have written books. There are multiple and differing viewpoints. So it became apparent after gathering all the material that we wanted to pick one and run with it. And that was the book. However, what's interesting, and this was also the reason that attracted me to the project, was that I have never adapted a book before. The most amazing sequences that play out on screen will sometimes be a single line in the book. To pick the events that actually tell the story, to make it cohesive, because when you undertake the largest manhunt in history, it's not as simple as what's shown in the show. People are telling me, 'oh, it's such a thriller'. That's because we made it like that. In reality, no investigation ever plays out like that. Sandeep Singh: Were you looking for a theme for a series or did you decide on it after you read the book? Anirudhya Mitra brought the material to Sameer Nair, who heads Applause Entertainment (production company). Sameer asked him to write a book so that we can adapt it. Once the book was written, that's when he pitched it to me. It was a series from the get-go. For the past seven years, I've just been almost entirely in the series space. Gone are the days when you would look at something and say, 'Oh God! This is so dense, how do I condense it in two hours?' And now that this stress is out of the window, the only question is monetary viability. Way before streaming came to India, I'd been trying to pitch myself as a series director in the US. I've been an HBO fan and long format was something I was just waiting for. Feature films are awesome, but up to this point, it has been gratifying to do stuff in the long format. Mohamed Thaver: Towards the end of the series, there are certain things which are not directly said, perhaps hinting at something. Does the book also leave things open-ended or have you made some changes? We have made a couple of changes because there are so many theories floating around. So, one had to kind of maybe suggest and kind of leave it open-ended. So, that's what we did. In the case of a true crime, the moment you take it from the page to a dramatic format, the kind of liberties you have to take… So every small thing, including the words that come out of the character's mouth, makes me think: are we doing right by them? It arguably was the most stressful thing. And I don't mean for being sued or creating a controversy. It's me as a writer and a filmmaker; I want to do right by whoever I'm portraying. In my world, there is seldom any black and white, it is all grey. Even when I deal with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), it's dealt with so much humanity. There's never any finger pointing because as one of the characters says: 'One man's terrorist is another man's hero. Mihir Vasavda: Be it the LTTE side, the political side or the security establishment — how do you make a series without hurting any one of them? I don't know what that answer is but when we were writing it, more than anything else, we were absolutely paying attention to the fact that there would not be any misrepresentation. Taking liberties can be interpreted as misrepresentation. But it's trying to just do the best that you can. Since it's been out, that's been my only stress. It was arguably the most exciting project I've done. But just constantly hoping that you haven't upset anyone… You can say the most meaningful of things in ways that don't offend people, as opposed to doing it in a way that's in your face and getting your point across. And it's genuinely the way I view the world. It doesn't take effort for me to write lines a certain way. Mihir Vasavda: Is it tougher to make these kind of shows or movies now compared to 15 years ago? It is a hypersensitive world and people can come at you from any angle. When I made Hyderabad Blues (1998), the censor board gave me 91 cuts. It was one of the most torturous processes to get the film to the theatre. So, I'm not new to this kind of milieu. There the gatekeepers were defined. So I knew that when I was going up before the censor board, such and such thing would happen. The Anand Patwardhans of the world were also on a parallel track with me. He was doing his own stuff and I would constantly look and say: 'Man, I could never do that'. I still write within this space and this is how I do it. In today's times, everything is so amped up. So yes, you really don't know what's going to happen and how. The biggest threat to our existence is social media. In 2019, I just disconnected everything and went off the radar. Alaka Sahani: What was in your mind while shooting the Rajiv Gandhi assassination scene? How did you want to portray him? I wanted to show him the way we've seen him in rallies, but arguably that was the most disturbing part of the shoot because you knew that you're portraying a horrific, grizzly scene. So, I tried to handle it with the maximum sensitivity because the whole thing is told from the child's point of view and we don't see anything. And we see very little of the aftermath other than the shoe. I think that was the one scene when you're actually doing the nitty gritties. But at the back of my mind, that was weighing a little bit saying that this is how he went. Alok Deshpande: Could you elaborate on casting for The Hunt. Also, how has OTT changed the casting game? What we understand as casting has changed because of the OTT space. Prior to that, if I had to justify a cast like this to a platform and talk about what the marketability would be and who brings poster value — it would have been virtually impossible. But now, when I clearly sort of lay out my plan, no one baulks. Here, the guiding force was clearly the fact that we had to get people who at least looked like the characters they were portraying. Casting Bay handled this show. They dug around and absolutely found them. Zeeshan Shaikh: Based on the research you did, what is your analysis of the actual assassination? For an organisation that was so secretive, LTTE really went out of its way — they clicked those pictures which showed their involvement in the assassination. They didn't take credit. But the justification was that everything that they did, they documented as proof to show that they could pull off the most audacious things. For example, when they ran a trial run with VP Singh, they had a bunch of different people recording but they followed the same format. Dhanu had a garland and went all the way to VP Singh and garlanded him, which is what's shown there. They wanted to take it back to Prabhakaran and prove to him that they could get all the way to the top. It was brilliant in its conception. They did the same thing here (Gandhi's assassination). Physics played a small part in it otherwise they would have gotten away with the perfect crime. The photographer wanted a slightly better angle and he raises the camera and that's a little bit above the blast radius and the camera survives. Zeeshan Shaikh: At a time, when there are so many filmmakers and artists complaining about their freedom of expression being repressed, did you feel the pinch of what has been happening around you while making The Hunt? If I were to go to my previous shows and tell you the kind of minute changes that one has to make because someone else might be pissed off. Not related to any political space, but a community might take umbrage. So it's everywhere. It's political, it's religious, it's caste-based, everything is no no. You can make a sweet love story set in some small town and I guarantee someone can sue you even there. It's the times we live in. That's the reality of what we do. Alaka Sahani: What kind of vetting did The Hunt undergo? It went through the same that every show does. Every small line, every explanation. The vetting process had been going on for a very long time. It's not something that just happened. Because the climate has lent itself to a lot of lawsuits, it's far more terrifying for filmmakers. Sandeep Singh: We are living in tough times where we have to be careful of what we are seeing and depicting. What do you think has changed? Social media. That is the root of all evil. I don't need to know everyone's opinion, but everyone has an opinion. Let's say you are in an airport and someone recognises you. There are beautiful pluses to that and there are minuses to that. Why would you walk up to a filmmaker and say that the film you made was really bad. What do you hope to achieve with that and what do you think the filmmaker is going to say? You pour your heart and soul into it. The last thing you need is someone walking up to you and saying… it's like, if I walked up to you with your child and say, 'that's one ugly child'. Tell me which parent is going to be like 'you are right, this is a ugly child'. If you have something nice to say to someone who's made a film, say something nice. The last review I read was in 2006. So, I really don't care much for reviews either. With social media, the hate floats to the top and that's what sticks. I have no desire to constantly engage with that. None. Mihir Vasavda: Why haven't we cracked the true sports underdog stories in India? The problem is that in order to reach a larger audience, two things happen. First, you have to get a star. You've destroyed the story there. If you don't worry about the way the person looked and you brought a star, I understand what the filmmakers are doing. Then to justify that star, you need to make it bigger and bigger. Let's say you whittled it down and made it like a three-five crore film. You tell me who is going to see it. Where are you going to show it? Then you have to circle back around to the fact that you have to get at least a B-list star. Our movie universe setup is not equipped to deal with this. That's not going to change. Mohamed Thaver: What prompted you to write and direct to Iqbal? Someone wanted a bunch of us to write short stories to commemorate former President Abdul Kalam's second term in office. I wanted to tell an underdog story. So I had an idea about a deaf and non-speaking kid who excels in malkhamb. I started writing the short story and it was only supposed to be like 10 pages. Seven went in describing what malkhamb was. So then, when I flipped it to cricket, all you had to say was Iqbal wanted to play cricket and you're done. I wrote a short story. A lot of people thought it was a movie about cricket and it wasn't. It never was. The heart and soul was about someone with a disability and overcoming it. This is a classic underdog tale. Alaka Sahani: Is it possible to make more top grossers like Pushpa? If it weren't for the big films, half the industry would not function. The success keeps people employed. There is a certain level of excitement to walk into a theater and watch something on that scale. But that can't be the only thing on offer. With OTT, the world has just become a smaller place. I had written a sci-fi film in 2000 and people kind of laughed. Now I can pitch the same. They might still say, 'we're not going to give you Rs 500 crore to make it' but that is a different conversation. Zeeshan Shaikh: Your film Dor is an official remake of a Malayalam film. What is the creative freedom in recreating art that has already been created by someone? There's not just one way to tell a story, right? I was on a jury and I saw Perumazhakkalam (2004), a Malayalam film. Both this movie and Dor are based on the same original idea about a woman losing her husband. I loved the idea. But TA Razzaq, the story writer and producer, got there first. So I had to go and get the rights from him and then make it. But if you look at Perumazhakkalam and Dor, there is absolutely nothing in common. Not the lensing, not the way the story is told. Sometimes the core idea appeals to you and you say, 'I bet I could tell the story differently'. I did it once again with a movie in 2011 called Mod with Ayesha Takia and Rannvijay Singh. It was based on a Taiwanese film called The Moment in Time that I watched at a festival. Suanshu Khurana: With so many big budget films with big stars not working in recent times in Hindi cinema, how do you see the uncertainty in the film industry? Does it need a fresh perspective? Is that what's happening? There's always a need to put things in a larger context and try and make sense of it. You have some hits, you have some losses. If we look back at the cinema that happened 50 years ago, it was driven by whatever stories were told at that point. So I don't know if just Hindi films aren't working or if now there's a larger scope for other languages to dub and then occupy what is known as the Hindi cinema space. Even when we couldn't raise money for a single film, I had this pig-headed approach that if you try hard enough, someone will give you that money and then eventually the movies would get made. Maybe this is just the lower part of the cycle and again there'll be two or three hits and again it'll come back up again. Zeeshan Shaikh: Did you get a call from DR Karthikeyan (who headed the SIT) after The Hunt was released? He has an alternative version of how things unfold. Sivarasan (the mastermind of the operation) is an important character with an interesting backstory. Is he someone you'd want to flesh out in another version? The answer is no to both. But characters who have a lot to lose are always interesting to write. Given everything, it was great fun writing Sivarasan. Then getting someone like Shafeeq Mustafa for the role. Shafeeq does the first audition and what I remember most is, he takes a drag and holds the cigarette and his hand shakes. I just loved it. That was one of the ways I saw Sivarasan. I wanted that nervous energy. The way Shafeeq walks, that's Sivarasan. I didn't have to structure that walk. Again, these are all the joyous parts of fleshing things out. So no, I would not be interested in doing anything larger.
Hindustan Times
16 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Bihar data released, next phase of revision to begin
The Election Commission of India will publish the draft electoral rolls for Bihar on August 1, marking the start of the next phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, the poll body said on Sunday. Booth Level Officer (BLO) verify documents during the SIR drive. (HT File) These draft rolls will include the names of all electors who submitted duly filled enumeration forms during the verification phase held between June 24 and July 25. Following the publication, a one-month statutory window — from August 1 to September 1— will open for electors, political parties, and other stakeholders to file claims for inclusion and objections to wrongful exclusions or errors in the draft list. During this period, any discrepancies, duplications, or missing entries can be formally flagged using prescribed forms. Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) will scrutinise all submissions and make necessary corrections. At the same time, these officers will review and take final decisions on the enumeration forms collected during the door-to-door phase. Once all objections and claims are processed and the 'health parameters' of the rolls are checked, the final electoral rolls will be published on September 30. The commission reiterated that no deletions will be made from the draft rolls without due process, including a formal notice and a speaking order by the ERO or AERO. 'As per Para 5(b) of SIR guidelines, NO NAME CAN BE DELETED from the draft list published on 1st August without notice and speaking order of the ERO/AERO,' according to an ECI note. The ECI on Sunday released a detailed note outlining the key findings from the recently concluded first phase of the SIR in Bihar. According to the Commission, over 7.24 crore voters — 91.69% of the state's 7.89 crore registered electors — submitted their Enumeration Forms during the month-long exercise. The remaining 8.31% included individuals who were either deceased, had shifted from their registered address, were found enrolled in multiple locations, or chose not to submit the form. Among the non-submitters, the commission identified 22 lakh (2.83%) voters as deceased, 36 lakh (4.59%) as not found at their address or permanently shifted, and 7 lakh (0.89%) as enrolled in more than one place. BLOs (block level officers) also reported that several electors had moved to other states or union territories and enrolled there, while others were unwilling to register or had not submitted the form by July 25. The Commission said that no name will be deleted from the draft rolls published on August 1 without proper legal procedure. As per Para 5(b) of the SIR guidelines, each deletion must be preceded by a formal notice and a speaking order from the relevant ERO or AERO. Voters who find their names missing from the draft rolls can appeal before the District Magistrate or the Chief Electoral Officer under Section 24 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. To make the process more accessible, the ECI is developing a standardised appeal format which will be made available for public use. The Commission also said that electors found enrolled at multiple locations will have their names retained in only one constituency. However, voters wrongly flagged as deceased, shifted, or duplicate may be added back during the Claims and Objections period. All such changes and verifications will be completed by the designated 243 EROs and 2,976 AEROs across Bihar, including 1,470 officers specially notified for the SIR on July 8. Responding to the ongoing political opposition to the SIR, a senior ECI official expressed surprise at the objections raised even before the publication of the draft list. 'ECI is not able to understand that when full one month period from 1 August till 1 September is available to point out wrongful inclusion or wrongful exclusion of any name, why are they creating such a big fuss now?' the official said. He further added, 'Why not ask their 1.6 lakh BLAs to submit claims and objections from 1 August till 1 September? Why are some persons trying to give an impression that the draft list is the final list, which it is not, as per SIR orders?' This reaction came two days after MPs from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc staged a protest inside the Parliament complex, marking the fifth day of demonstrations against the SIR exercise in Bihar. Senior leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, led a march from the Gandhi statue on the premises to the Makar Dwar entrance of Parliament. Carrying posters with the slogan 'SIR—Attack on Democracy,' the MPs tore and discarded them in a symbolic rejection of the process. The Commission noted that BLOs visited each household where an elector was listed in the voter roll as of June 24, with up to three visits made to ensure form collection. BLOs also held meetings with BLAs at the booth level, and political agents were allowed to submit up to 50 Enumeration Forms per day to ensure their full participation in the exercise. To include temporarily migrated voters from Bihar, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state reached out to CEOs of other states and union territories, requesting assistance in contacting migrant electors. In addition, the ECI released full-page advertisements in 246 newspapers across the country, with a combined circulation of 2.6 crore, to inform Bihari voters residing outside the state about the enumeration process. The ECI also reported significant digital participation. Over 16 lakh Enumeration Forms were filled online through the official portal or ECINet mobile app, while an additional 13 lakh forms were downloaded for manual submission — taking the total digital engagement to nearly 29 lakh forms. These forms could be submitted through family members or even via messaging platforms like WhatsApp to the concerned BLOs. Special attention was paid to urban voters, with enumeration camps set up in all 5,683 wards across 261 urban local bodies in Bihar. To complement this effort, more than 10.2 crore SMSes were sent during the enumeration phase — both to inform electors and to acknowledge receipt of their forms. The Commission also provided a portal link for voters to track the status of their submissions. 'Now that the process of distribution and collection of enumeration forms is over, the BLOs would be given training in the next couple of days to handle the process of claims/ objections. If any eligible elector wants to include his /her name , it would be done from August 1 to September 1. Besides, claims /objections could be given against any elector's name figuring in the rolls. Such electors would be given notice and only after hearing, a decision would be taken by the electoral registration officers (EROs). No names would be deleted without proper hearing,' said an officer in the state election department. A second official said that all BLOs will be given copies of the draft rolls on August 1. 'The draft rolls will also be given to representatives of recognised political parties and booth level agents of the parties... Electors can also check their names in the draft rolls online or by visiting booths,' the official said, requesting anonymity. During the claims and objection period, voters can also get any rectification done by filling up prescribed forms while any genuine voter who has not been included in the rolls could also get enrolled by filling up the prescribed forms and declaration, officials said.
