The Happy New Year wrap-up
and I am so sorry!
Hello DoorDesi,
A very happy new year! May you take this year as an opportunity to pursue a dream, a hobby, a path that you have been wanting to for a while. I have a good feeling about this year despite the news cycle of the first week. :D
But let me also apologise to you. I did not mean to just disappear on you. You see, your girl got married in India in the second week of December. So my plan was always to send you one final End of Year email with niceties and the news on the 14th and informing you of my time off. But boy, oh boy!, did I underestimate the amount of work and surprises surrounding an Indian wedding. So yeah, you were constantly on my mind (except when I was having the most fun I have ever had at any wedding), but I am so sorry I did not inform you. You deserve better. You have treated this newsletter way too well for me to have done that so for that, I am genuinely sorry and utterly ashamed.
If you haven’t already given up on me, then let’s start the year with a positive wrap-up actually. Let me run you through the good things that happened in India in the last few months.
Let’s go!
Just the gist
🔗Wedding bails and empty cells
Umar Khalid, political prisoner since 2020 in Tihar jail under the UAPA for allegedly insitigating the 2020 Delhi Riots against CAA, got interim bail to attend his sister’s wedding. The world saw him for the first time again in almost 6 years. You do not have to be right, left, or centre of the political spectrum to appreciate that there is no concrete case that has ever been filed against him or others who have been imprisoned along with him. The UAPA has been used by the Centre to essentially say “our vibes just didn’t match and they give me a tingly sensation in my spine.“ Okay, so?
➡️ Anyway, the Supreme Court is set to give a verdict on the bail pleas of Khalid and others related to the same ‘case’ on the 5th of January (tomorrow). 🤞
🔗The commitment you almost made
The Indian government had mandated all mobile phone manufacturers to pre-install the Sanchar Sathi app on phones that would be sold in India. This app is presented as a tool to verify whether a device’s IMEI is genuine, to block cloned or blacklisted identifiers, to report stolen phones, and to flag potential telecom fraud. This seems benign but an OS-level mandate to install a state owned app naturally raised questions about surveillance, privacy, and consent.
Within a week, however, the State recalled this mandate as all hell broke loose online. Civil society, regular people, the Opposition all came down hard on the government and the government called it off stating that enough people had started downloading it voluntarily so they do not need to mandate it anymore. Mmmhmmm.. saving face much?
➡️ Yaay so the power of protest! Yaay to the power of showing up for our right! Also, a reminder that every digital equipment you buy comes not only with T&C but ethical and security questions around it. Who owns my data, whose chips are installed in my phone, how did they get these chips, who made my device and under what labour conditions. Give this a little bit of thought if you don’t already the next time you buy a device. :)
Another big story from December was the redefining of the Aravalli range in the north/north-west of India so our rich dads of the nation can get richer by mining while Delhi and surrounding areas literally choke. According to the State’s new definition any landform of elevation 100m or more above the local average will be considered part of the range. Nice. Sounds good right? Wrong! Because this also means that any landform that BELOW 100m will NOT be considered Aravalli Hills and therefore, good to go for exploitation. According to estimates almost 99% of what is currently considered Aravalli Hills will fall outside of the definition. Environmentalists also argue that scrub-covered areas which are naturally much lower in elevation but critical to the ecology will be open for business.
So people got on the streets again! December really was the month of weddings and protests in India. If you were not getting dressed to attend a wedding you were painting placards it seems.
As a result the Supreme Court has stayed (paused) its decision on allowing this definition to pass, had ordered the formation of an expert committee to examine this matter, and has asked the four Aravalli states - Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, and Delhi to respond to the complaints.
➡️ As we watch Delhi choke we need to remember that environmental laws are directly related to human rights. Animal rights are directly related to human rights. The time to see them in isolation, to vote for a party based on one policy while ignoring the others is gone. Also, in 2026 can those of you who not participate in elections please start participating? It takes very little time but makes a lot of difference.
A rapist and ex-BJP MLA, Kuldeep Singh Sengar was set to walk after Delhi High Court declared him a ‘public servant’ and ruled that as a result the seven and a half year he had spent in jail were more than enough. Yes. For raping. A child. And then the death of her father.
People erupted in anger. The survivor herself and her mother protested in Delhi where they were manhandled (to put it mildly) by central security forces in the name of ‘protection’. God! Being a woman!
However, the anger on the streets reached the Supreme Court’s ears again and they stayed this ruling too.
➡️ At this point we need to ask if our judiciary isn’t just playing games with us. Like “here, we are letting this hardened criminal go“ - “eh, psyche!“. “We are selling more of our protected land to the rich” - “Naah, just kidding!“ Do you damn job so we can walk on the streets safely, so we can breathe clean air, so we can travel in peace. Quit playing games!
Who had ‘Arnab Goswami demands accountability from the BJP government’ on their 2025 Bingo card? Nobody? Well, what the hell happened here. I am still diving into all the conspiracy theories and also coming up with my own but hell it has been entertaining to watch one of the loudest lap dogs of the current government make a turn so hard that the nation is shocked.
But here is the thing. This is certainly not an ideological shift but a calculated business decision. TV news is losing audience because even the blindest supporters of a government can tell when the air they are breathing in is toxic and when they miss important appointments because monopolistic airlines cancel flights. So you need to ask some questions to keep those people coming back to you for answers.
➡️ So enjoy this while it lasts. Seize this opportunity to share his clips on the family WhatsApp group just enough so they don’t go back to prime time news but still benefit from watching the fourth pillar of democracy asking the right questions.
That’s all for today. I am slowly getting back into daily life as white snow covers everything around me. I am truly so grateful to you for your support.
Mili (our enthu-cutlet co-founder) and I have both embarked on exciting journeys in life, both very personal and very new.
Stay with us and let’s make DoorDesi the success story Mili and I have been dreaming of.
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With love and laughter,
Sudeshna
