Editor in Chief

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday handed out appointment letters to 25,000 of the 1.2 lakh school teachers recruited by the Bihar Public Service Commission in October. Even as Kumar was giving out the letters at an event in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, Opposition leaders alleged that the government had deprived Biharis by recruiting thousands of teachers from other states.

At the heart of the controversy is a domicile policy – or the lack of it. The Kumar government had allowed candidates from outside Bihar to take the examinations. But Bihari applicants have held protests, pointing out that Kumar’s deputy, Tejashwi Yadav, had promised when he was in the Opposition to reserve seats for local candidates.

Bihar is not alone in this nativist politics. Across India, several states now have domicile quotas for residents who have been born there or lived there for a long time. Many other states have heard demands for such a policy.

What is the controversy?

A total of 1,20,336 candidates made it to the merit list in the first phase of recruitment of teachers for primary, secondary and higher secondary schools in Bihar in October. Soon after the results were announced, candidates took to social media to criticise the government for recruiting teachers…

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In political communication, a big lie – what is known as the “illusory truth effect” – is when the constant repetition of misinformation makes people more likely to accept it as truth.

Repetition is how lies gain traction. The more exposure to specific ideas and tropes that may be false claims, the more likely it is that this misinformation becomes understood as real.

A plethora of fake news circulates on the internet and social media. Unlike misinformation, which refers to false or inaccurate information, disinformation campaigns deliberately spread propaganda to create fear and suspicion.

Disinformation industries, and the brokers who exchange in this false currency, have an immense capability to circulate propaganda and conspiracy theories to a greater public, outside of their own echo chambers.

Producing social fictions

Through media outlets and co-ordinated networks, Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian tropes and conspiracies are circulated. Eventually, they become regarded as social facts, especially in times of war, conflict and heightened political tensions.

During these fraught times, the ability to authorise wholesale violence relies on circulating dehumanising tropes and “scare stories”. This targeted propaganda frames entire populations as deviant “folk devils,” responsible for crimes and social problems. This then creates moral panics, used to justify acts of oppression.

A violent threat

In my book, Under Siege: Islamophobia and the 9/11 Generation, I document how since 9/11, two billion Muslims globally have faced collective punishment. Constructed…

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Authorities in Imphal on Wednesday reimposed a curfew after a mob gathered in front of a Manipur Rifles camp in the state capital and unsuccessfully attempted to snatch arms.

District authorities in both Imphal West and Imphal East cancelled curfew relaxations that had been in place from 5 am to 10 pm as per an order issued on Tuesday. Essential services such as medical, petrol pumps, courts will, however, be exempt from the curfew.

Earlier in the day, firing was reported in parts of Imphal and locals said they could hear gunshots. An Army official told Scroll that the security forces fired gunshots to disperse crowds that had gathered in front of the Manipur Rifles camp.

No casualties have been reported.

Curfew reimposed in Imphal after mob trying to snatch arms from 1st Manipur Rifles. Multiple residents told me they can clearly hear the gunshots. @scroll_in pic.twitter.com/KH8Q9Sht1T

— Rokibuz Zaman (@ROKIBUZZAMAN2) November 1, 2023

The development comes a day after a Manipur Police officer was shot dead by suspected Kuki militants in the state’s Moreh town bordering Myanmar. Sub Divisional Police Officer Chingtham Anand was shot dead while he was on duty overseeing the cleaning of a school ground for the construction of a helipad.

The recent flare-up in violence comes as the state continues to reel from…

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The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday provisionally attached properties worth Rs 538.05 crore in connection with an alleged money-laundering case linked to airline Jet Airways.

The case is based on a May 3 first information report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Jet Airways, its founder Naresh Goyal, his wife Anita Goyal as well as some former company executives following a complaint from Canara Bank.

The lender said that it had sanctioned credit limits and loans to Jet Airways worth Rs 848.86 crore, of which Rs 538.62 crore was outstanding. The funds, Canara Bank alleged, were diverted for purposes unrelated to the airline’s operations.

On Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate attached 17 residential and commercial premises registered in the name of various companies and individuals, including Jetair Private Limited, Jet Enterprises Private Limited, Naresh and Anita Goyal and their son Nivaan Goyal.

The properties are located in London, Dubai and different parts of India.

The development comes a day after the central agency submitted its chargesheet against Naresh Goyal and five others. The Jet Airways founder was arrested in connection with the case on September 1.

ED has provisionally attached properties worth Rs 538.05 Crore under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 in the money laundering investigation against M/s Jet Airways (India) Limited…

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The Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board (APSSB) has invited online applications from eligible candidates for the Personal Assistant/Stenographer Grade III recruitment exam 2023. Aspirants will be able to register for the exam on the official website apssb.nic.in from November 15. The last date to apply for the posts is November 5.

The recruitment drive aims to fill up a total of 90 Personal Assistant (Stenographer Grade III) posts in various departments of the Arunachal Pradesh State Government.

Vacancy Details

• Arunachal APPSC – 1 vacancy
• General Administration – 71 vacancies
• Planning & Investment – 3 vacancies
• Public Works Department – 3 vacancies
• Urban Development & Housing – 5 vacancies
• Water Resources Department – 5 vacancies
• TRIHMS – 2 vacancies

Eligibility Criteria

Age limit: Between 18 to 35 years. Upper age limit relaxations applicable for reserved category candidates.

Educational qualification: Candidates must possess (i) Graduation/Bachelor’s Degree from a recongised University and (ii) Diploma in Stenography from a recognised institution.

Here’s the official notification.

Application Fee

A non-refundable fee of Rs 150 for APST candidates and Rs 200 for General candidates will be charged as application fee.

Selection Process

Candidates will be shortlisted based on their performance in the exam and a document verification process. The examination will be conducted in two stages Stage 1 – Stenographer Proficiency Test and Stage 2 – Objective type written exam.

For more details, candidates are advised to visit the official website here.

…

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday confirmed an order from 2015 that had granted interim anticipatory bail to activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand in a case pertaining to the alleged misappropriation of funds, Live Law reported.

The top court had granted them interim anticipatory bail on February 12, 2015. A bench headed by Justice SK Kaul on Wednesday noted that the chargesheet in the case has not yet been filed and directed that the pre-arrest bail order should continue.

The complaint against Setalvad and Anand alleges that they misappropriated funds collected to build a “Museum of Resistance” at the Gulbarg Housing Society in Ahmedabad. The residential area was one of the places where communal violence had taken place killing 69 people.

The Supreme Court also disposed of another petition by Setalvad demanding that remarks made by the Gujarat High Court while granting her anticipatory bail in a separate case be expunged, according to PTI. “It is trite to say that any observation made at the stage of bail can hardly have any influence on the trial of the matter,” the court said. “We are not required to say anything more.”

The second case pertains to allegations that Setalvad and Anand misused grants of Rs 1.4 crore from the Union government through their…

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🔥 Guy surfs into breaching whale pic.twitter.com/uKtmttcXJI

— NatureIsAmazing (@OurNatureRocks) October 25, 2023

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Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Friday said that she gave businessman Darshan Hiranandani access to her online Lok Sabha account but denied taking any cash from him, reported The Indian Express.

“No MP types her/his own question,” said Moitra. “I have given him [Hiranandani] the password and login for someone in his office to type it [the questions] down and upload.”

She said that the questions can only be submitted upon entering a one-time password, which is delivered to her phone number. Hence, said the Trinamool Congress leader, no question went on the Parliament website without her knowledge.

Her statement comes days after Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking to have Moitra immediately suspended for allegedly taking bribes from Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament.

Dubey cited a letter from lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, reportedly Moitra’s estranged partner, to claim that he had “irrefutable evidence” about her asking questions in Parliament in exchange for cash and gifts.

The Hiranandani Group initially dismissed Dubey’s allegations against Moitra as having “no merit”. However, Hiranandani, the chief executive officer of the real estate company, on October 19 submitted an affidavit to the ethics committee, accusing Moitra of spreading unverified information about industrialist Gautam Adani.

Moitra told The Indian Express that Dehadrai’s allegations were fake. “You…

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By the time he disembarked from a ship in Bombay in 1929, Vienna-born writer and journalist Wolfgang von Weisl was a strong proponent of Zionism. Living as a young Jew in Austria at a time when Nazi ideas were germinating had convinced him that there was no future for Jews in Europe.

Travelling to India on documents issued by Britain, which had established Mandatory Palestine in 1920, von Weisl was keen on contacting the Jewish communities in the western parts of the country. One of his aims was to draw Baghdadi Jews and Bene Israel into the movement for the establishment of a homeland for Jews in Palestine.

But his interactions with these communities, and overall experience of India, left him in shock. He wrote down his thoughts in a January 1930 article for the Buffalo Jewish Review.

No proselytising policy

Von Weisl claimed he crossed the Himalayas into Tibet dressed as a Hindu monk. When people asked him his religion, his answer befuddled them. “A Jew – by most this was taken to be a sub-caste of Brahminism or something of the sort – with the tacit assumption that by the colour of my skin, I must be a Brahmin for….they had never heard of Jews,” he wrote….

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