This Week in Explainers: If not passport, which documents are proof of citizenship in India?

It’s been a mixed bag of news for India. There have been highs and lows.

The biggest news for India came courtesy of Canada. The country’s intelligence agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, has for the first time in 41 years explicitly blamed Canada-based Khalistani terrorists for planting the explosive device on board Air India Flight 182, killing 329 people. The move is a huge vindication for India and its stance vis-à-vis the Khalistan movement.

A murder at Lohagad Fort has captivated the minds of the public. A 26-year-old Pune man, Ketan Agarwal, died at Lohagad Fort in Maval tehsil in Maharashtra’s Pune last week. However, this week it emerged that he didn’t slip and fall as the police had assumed earlier. Instead, he was pushed by his fiancée, Siya Goyal, and her alleged lover.

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The other big shocker for India came from Ayodhya. Champat Rai, the general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, has stepped down from his post following allegations of theft of donations by devotees.

It’s also been a big week for Indian CEOs and their status on the global stage. Until this week, CRED founder Kunal Shah was a familiar name mainly within the country’s startup and investor circles. However, with Meta appointing him to lead WhatsApp, he has been propelled into the global spotlight. There’s also the success story of Shankh Mitra, the Jadavpur University-educated Indian who has become the second-highest-paid CEO in the world after Elon Musk.

We talk about all this and even more in our weekly wrap of the news from India.

1) On June 23, India and Canada marked the 41st anniversary of the explosion of Air India Flight 182, also known as the Kanishka bombing. The plane was carrying a bomb that was planted by operatives linked to the banned Khalistani outfit, Babbar Khalsa.

Now, for the first time since the bombing, Canada has acknowledged that Khalistani terrorists were involved in the incident in which all 329 people on board died.

For India, this moment is a huge win. New Delhi has long held the position that the bombing was perpetrated by Khalistani extremists, who, even presently, operate from Canadian soil.

If you want to know more, read here.

A huge debate has erupted online after an official from the Ministry of External Affairs noted that a passport is a travel document and not proof of citizenship. File image/ANI

2) How do you prove you are an Indian citizen — that’s the question that has gone viral this week.

Why?

It all began after a senior Ministry of External Affairs officer said that the Indian passport is a “travel document” and not a “citizenship document”. Now, everyone’s asking: What constitutes proof of citizenship in the country?

Does your Aadhaar, PAN, or voter ID prove you are a citizen of India? No. We explain why.

Pune-based Ketan Agarwal and Siya Goyal announced their engagement in February. Months later, 26-year-old Agarwal died in a trekking accident, which has now been revealed to be a murder plotted by his fiancee, Siya. Image Courtesy: X

3) Love or the lack of it often drives people to do crazy things. And this was well illustrated when the death of 26-year-old Ketan Agarwal, the son of prominent Pune real-estate businessman Vishal Agarwal, turned out to be an elaborate and premeditated murder by his fiancée Siya Goyal and her alleged lover Chetan Chaudhary.

Ketan, who was the real estate director in his family business, died on June 18 after falling nearly 400 feet into a gorge near Lohagad Fort, Pune, Maharashtra. The theory his fiancée floated was that he slipped and fell while taking pictures, which cops have now debunked after examining the circumstances.

But how did cops debunk Goyal’s attempt to pass the murder as an accident? There were a number of clues, including a hoodie and the suspicions of Ketan’s sister.

We unravel the entire case so far and get you the latest from the murder most foul.

4) Venezuela is grappling with the aftermath of its strongest earthquakes in more than a century. However, the natural disaster in the South American nation has also been felt kilometres away in India.

The earthquake doublet in Venezuela has raised fresh concerns over India’s rapidly expanding oil trade with the South American nation. Amid the uncertainty caused by the West Asia war, New Delhi sharply increased purchases of Venezuelan crude in recent months. Imports from Caracas surged through April and May, helping the country become one of India’s most significant crude suppliers.

However, the earthquakes put all of this at risk. Experts warn that shipping delays, port disruptions, and higher insurance costs could follow.

Read our full essay to understand the possible implications of the quake on India.

A devotee prays near the Lord Ram temple after its inauguration, in Ayodhya. File photo/Reuters

5) The Ram Mandir donation row escalated this week after the temple trust’s general secretary, Champat Rai, stepped down on moral grounds. Rai was the general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, an independent body that manages the shrine.

The resignation comes after an FIR was registered and eight people were arrested in the embezzlement of donations from the temple in Ayodhya to the tune of Rs 7-7.5 crore.

Notably, Rai initially dismissed allegations of theft of donation funds, but later welcomed the SIT probe that was ordered by the Yogi Adityanath government.

6) Away from the news of murders and scams, this week has been particularly significant for Indian CEOs. The founder of CRED, Kunal Shah, has become the toast of the town after Meta-owned Whatsapp appointed him as the global head of the messaging platform following a $900 million financing round into the Indian fintech major led by the Mark Zuckerberg company.

But Shah’s climb to the top has been a winding road, marked with many challenges. Here’s how he went from a call centre employee to becoming the WhatsApp head.

And that’s not all. This week, the Wall Street Journal also released its list of the highest-paid CEOs. While Elon Musk grabbed the top spot, the second position grabbed headlines. Indian-origin Shankh Mitra from Welltower emerged as the second highest paid CEO in the world with a compensation of $821 million.

And that’s it from us this week. If you would like to read more of our explainers, here’s the page to bookmark.