The Reporter TV-Kerala government tussle over social media posts | Powertrip #166

Welcome to this week’s Powertrip, a political newsletter curated exclusively for subscribers of The News Minute and Newslaundry. This week’s edition is by Shabbir Ahmed, Pooja Prasanna and Haritha Manav.In this week’s edition, how did Malayalam news channel Reporter TV manage to evade content restrictions by Meta amid a quarrel with the Chief Minister?In Tamil Nadu, some ministers may lose their positions after a performance assessment by the CMO.Karnataka’s verification drive to identify suspected illegal immigrants is more commonly associated with BJP governments. So why did the Congress government initiate it and why has it now decided to step back?Powertrip is a newsletter that senior political reporters of TNM put together every week. For those who can’t access the full newsletter, get a subscription and read every Tuesday..Reporter TV’s workaround for Meta content restrictionsAmid the escalating tussle between the Kerala government and Malayalam news channel Reporter TV over Meta content restrictions, the channel stopped using Chief Minister VD Satheesan’s photo and instead published his silhouette on Instagram news cards.Reporter TV says Meta removed around 26 news cards from its Instagram handle which had content that criticised the Congress-led UDF government with Satheesan’s picture.Meta cited “legal requirements under India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules” while restricting the content.It all started when Satheesan took a private chartered flight from Bengaluru to Kozhikode to urgently visit families affected by a deadly landslide in Malappuram. He later defended taking the private chartered flight while interacting with the press, and according to Reporter TV, they published 16 Instagram cards related to the press meet. Within 24 hours, Meta removed 14 out of the 16 cards.Though Reporter TV reached out to Meta via email and raised a grievance, they said they are yet to receive any response.That is when the channel stopped using Satheesan’s photo. Notably, the Meta actions stopped after this approach was adopted. Ahead of TN Cabinet reshuffle, CMO holds performance review of MinistersThe Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s office has been conducting a review of all the ministers and according to sources, the CMO was unhappy with some of their performances.For the past two weeks, ministers have been receiving calls from the CMO to inform them about the performance review.The functioning of ministers was scrutinised based on initiatives taken in their respective departments, subject knowledge, their performance in the Assembly and the controversies surrounding certain departments.After the assessment, the CMO was apparently unhappy with the performance of a few ministers, particularly the Minister for Transport Vijay Parthiban, Minister for Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Jagadeshwari, Minister for Human Resources and Management Sarathkumar, and Minister for Industries Keerthana. The ministers have been instructed to step up their game.The performance review comes just ahead of the cabinet reshuffle that is expected to take place after the Madurantakam and Dharapuram bye-elections.The assessment report is expected to be submitted to the Chief Minister, who will take a call on who to retain, add or drop. Operation Mukta: What was Congress really looking for?Operation Mukta was supposed to be a verification exercise. The Bengaluru Police launched the citywide drive to identify suspected illegal immigrants, particularly Bangladeshi nationals, with teams entering migrant settlements and workers’ accommodations to check Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, passports and other documents. But very quickly, the manner of the exercise became the story, with Bengali-speaking workers being rounded up and indiscriminately targeted.That put the Congress government in an unusual political spot. Civil society alleged that the exercise looked a lot like the kind of immigrant verification drives more commonly associated with BJP governments. So why did a Congress government initiate it?We understand there were two concerns driving the decision. The first was a series of complaints about the exploitation and alleged human rights violations faced by Bengali-speaking workers in parts of Bengaluru. There was also a more basic problem: many migrant workers living in informal settlements were effectively unaccounted for. The government wanted the police to establish how many foreign nationals were living in the city and whether any were here without valid documents. The Home Department consequently directed the police to carry out the verification.The second motivation, according to Congress sources, was political. The party had received information alleging that at least three BJP MLAs in Bengaluru were facilitating the entry of Bengali-speaking migrants, including alleged Bangladeshi nationals, helping some find jobs and obtain Aadhaar documents. Congress sources claim that some of these people were subsequently registered as voters, and that identifying such voters was therefore also part of the concern. These are allegations made by Congress sources and will need independent verification.But what began as an exercise to identify undocumented foreign nationals soon ran into accusations of collective targeting. The backlash appears to have prompted the government to step in and halt the broader exercise.We understand the police have now been told not to conduct blanket verification without specific information about people suspected of criminal activity, or those being exploited and in need of state support. The Home Minister has also called a meeting with civil society groups and representatives of the Bengali-speaking workers picked up during the operation.So the government is now trying to draw a line between identifying undocumented foreign nationals and turning an entire migrant community into a category of suspicion. Zero HourA political story of public importanceWhat explains the recent wave of protests at the IITs? .PowermovesTop 5 political stories Same pattern, more names: Form 7 objections in Karnataka’s Bhalki targets Muslim voters Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s election challenged, Sabarinadhan tells court Rs 91 cr assets undeclared TN’s Thaimaaman gold ring scheme for newborns: Who qualifies, what documents are needed Two years of Hyderabad’s HYDRAA: Bulldozers, courts and the cost of enforcement Who decided on nationwide SIR? EC’s RTI response raises questions