The article highlights an initiative by financially abused DHFL victims who have sent letters to consumer rights authorities in India and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). They are specifically emphasizing on the role of Shah Rukh Khan, the company’s former brand ambassador, to recognize their plight and support their quest for justice. The victims, many of whom are senior citizens and small investors, contend that SRK’s endorsement fostered their trust in DHFL, which subsequently collapsed, erasing their life savings. This campaign seeks to hold him morally accountable while advocating for increased scrutiny and legal responsibility for celebrities endorsing financial institutions, positioning it as a battle for justice and consumer rights.
Gandhi-Washed “Vaisnava” Capitalism: The Piramal Paradox Or Hypocrisy?
The article critiques Ajay Piramal’s business practices, particularly his acquisition of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL), alleging the possible dramaturgy of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Dharma to mask crony capitalism. It highlights allegations of financial misconduct, insider trading, environmental violations, and political shielding by the BJP, drawing parallels with broader systemic issues like the Adani-Hindenburg dispute. The piece contrasts Piramal’s actions with Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of trusteeship (with critical reservations) and austerity, arguing that his corporate social responsibility (CSR) and philanthropy are superficial, serving as “Gandhi-washing” to obscure profit-driven motives. It frames Piramal’s practices as emblematic of India’s crony-capitalist regime, questioning the integrity of regulatory bodies like SEBI and advocating for vigilance against corporate-political collusion, while noting that these claims remain under judicial scrutiny and are far from being conclusive/definitive. However, the same doesn’t stop one from analyzing the neoliberal face of capitalism in the contemporary India.
Let Them Eat Philanthropy: Piramal’s Divine Economic Paradox
This paper offers a critical, self-reflective interrogation of the intertwined narratives of corporate philanthropy, regressive taxation, and public disenfranchisement in contemporary India, with a particular focus on the Piramal Group. Juxtaposing India’s rising indirect tax burdens on the middle class with corporate tax minimization strategies, the essay exposes the paradox of ‘development’ that privatizes profit while socializing environmental and health costs. Using a blend of sarcasm, literary parody, and empirical data—ranging from GST fluctuations to the crumbling public healthcare system—it deconstructs how ‘philanthropic’ giants like Ajay Piramal reap tax benefits, wield influence through electoral funding, and contribute minimally to actual public welfare, while projecting moral superiority through CSR and token charity. The work situates this critique within broader discourses on crony capitalism, Gandhi’s misappropriated trusteeship, and the Summers Memo logic of “let them eat pollution.” This analysis ultimately questions the ethical legitimacy of corporate altruism in a system rigged for profiteering, illustrating how the economic policies of the last decade have systematically eroded public goods in favour of oligarchic consolidation.
Many Tongues, One Resistance: Plea to the Distressed DHFL Victims
This plurilingual public appeal by OBMA addresses the defrauded depositors of DHFL, emphasizing the systemic failure of justice under crony capitalism in India. While recognizing the limitations of domestic legal remedies, it calls for peaceful civil resistance and international intervention through the UN Human Rights system (OHCHR). The article encourages mass mobilization via petitions, specifically targeting celebrity endorsement accountability (Shah Rukh Khan) and audit-credit rating failures. It frames this as a collective struggle for visibility, justice, and institutional memory. Multiple translations amplify inclusivity and reach.
Don’t Let Justice Be Overruled: Honouring NCLT and NCLAT in the DHFL Debacle
In the long and convoluted journey of the DHFL insolvency saga, two quasi-judicial bodies—NCLT and NCLAT—stood out for their timely, bold, and procedurally sound interventions. From directing a reconsideration of the 100% offer to identifying discriminatory irregularities in the resolution process, these tribunals prioritized justice over expediency. This post is both a thanksgiving and a public appeal: NCLT and NCLAT must not allow their principled findings to be buried by later Supreme Court overruling. In an era of post-truth, let institutional memory resist judicial amnesia.
Is change.org a Reliable Petition Public Platform for Justice?
This article interrogates the structural contradictions and opaque operational logic of Change.org, a platform widely regarded as a grassroots petition engine for justice. Drawing on the author’s lived experience with unexplained signature count reductions and suspected content suppression, it situates Change.org within the broader economy of digital activism where public outrage is algorithmically packaged for visibility and monetization. Despite popular assumptions of its progressive orientation, this paper argues that the platform’s apparent ideological tilt is symptomatic not of political commitment but of profit-maximizing emotional amplification. Furthermore, the piece contextualizes these concerns within a case study of the OBMA campaign for DHFL victims, where legal intimidation and social media censorship—allegedly linked to corporate interests—highlight the fragility of digital dissent. The article challenges both the ethical legitimacy and the epistemic reliability of Change.org as a site of justice-oriented mobilization.
Demanding a Truth Commission from Indian Institutions Embedded in Untruth
In post-2014 India, the state’s strategic deployment of disinformation, judicial opacity, and media spectacle has rendered truth both criminalized and performative. This paper interrogates the paradox of demanding a Truth and Accountability Commission from institutions deeply embedded in untruth. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s critique of confession, Derrida’s concept of archive fever, Freud’s metaphor of the mystic pad, Arendt’s theorization of lying in politics, and Guattari’s notion of pseudology, we propose the “mystique pad” as an insurgent counter-archive. Anchored in the empirical landscape of electoral manipulation, SLAPP suits, RTI evasions, and media censorship in India (2014–2025), the paper posits that civil society’s imperative is no longer merely revelation—but memorialization. Truth, in this schema, is not the opposite of falsehood but its residue.
MEMO SUBMITTED: Demand for a Judicial Truth Commission on the DHFL Verdict
This article announces the submission of a people’s memorandum to India’s highest constitutional and judicial offices, demanding a Judicial Truth and Accountability Commission to probe the DHFL Supreme Court verdict—a decision that legitimized the corporate expropriation of thousands of depositors’ life savings. The memo exposes judicial silence, regulatory complicity, and the erasure of dissent. Backed by a rapidly growing online mass petition, this is a collective cry for justice, transparency, and the restoration of democratic integrity in the face of systemic betrayal.
Justice for DHFL Victims: Demand a Judicial Truth Commission Now! (An Online Mass Petition)
The article calls for a Judicial Truth and Accountability Commission to investigate the DHFL insolvency verdict, which allegedly enabled corporate expropriation of small investors’ savings. It poses questions to the Supreme Court for upholding a reportedly flawed resolution plan, questions regulators, the CoC, and corporate actors like Ajay Piramal of collusion, and highlights systemic failures, including cronyism, auditor lapses, and possible political links. Framing the crisis as a human rights issue involving financial abuse, the petition seeks justice, reparations, and institutional accountability.
Justice via Intimidation? A Financially Abused Citizen vs. the Corporate-State Nexus
The author of this open communication to the Hon’ble Bombay High is a victim of the DHFL financial scandal. He reports receiving a Bombay High Court suit (No. 42 of March 17, 2025) unusually via the Mumbai Sheriff, which contained identity errors, redundant or blank pages, and a mere five‑day response window, compared to the 90 days apparently allotted to corporate plaintiff Mr. Ajay Piramal. He argues that this situation appears to constitute legal intimidation by a powerful corporate‑state nexus that has left him impoverished and unable to secure counsel within such a short temporal window. He highlights his right to self‑representation and demands clarity on the apparently vague allegations, framing the situation as Kafkaesque. Additionally, he draws attention to alleged corporate malfeasance linked to Ajay Piramal—insider‑trading fines, environmental violations, political donations, and controversial acquisitions such as DHFL, along with real‑estate deals—and contends that the political executives enforce the law selectively, favoring elites and infringing upon constitutional rights and international human rights norms. This open communication is intended to defend the fundamental freedom of speech and expression, which constitutes an exception to defamation as guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution.
Once in a Blue Moon Academia 