The Caravan - March 2018

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In 2014, as the Coalgate scandal rocked the country, the Supreme Court ordered an end to almost all existing partnerships to exploit captive coal blocks. This included joint ventures and mining agreements between state-owned and private companies, which often favoured private interests. But at Parsa East and Kanta Basan, a block reallocated in 2015 to a corporation of the Rajasthan government, pre-2014 agreements with a company of the Adani Group have continued, promising undue gains of Rs 6,000 crore at the very least. This is clear in public documents, yet there has been no action by the government of Narendra Modi, who has made no secret of his closeness with the chairman of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani. Also in this issue: Atul Bhattarai on the movement to rebuild an iconic monument in earthquake-hit Nepal; Tisaranee Gunasekara on how the ruling parties’ defeat in local polls has dealt a blow to Sri Lanka’s democratising process; Anushka Shah and Zeenab Aneez analyse the Indian media’s unsettling coverage of farmer protests in 2017; Sunil Khilnani examines a new book about Joseph Conrad and his world; Blake Smith looks at the history of France’s preoccupation with India; Alec Jacobsen reveals the extent of overfishing in Uganda.