July 14, 2025

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THE NEW SPACE ODYSSEY

When Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla floated into the International Space Station (ISS) from the Crew Dragon capsule that had docked with it on June 26, he wasn't feeling too good. Despite being a test pilot in the Indian Air Force, like most astronauts on their maiden flight into orbit, Shukla admitted that his head felt heavy and he was slightly disoriented. That's because he was still adjusting to the near-zero gravity conditions he endured during the 28-hour space flight that brought him and his three compatriots to the ISS, which orbits the earth at a height of 400 km. Dr Brigitte Godard, a former spaceflight surgeon at the Cologne-based European Astronaut Centre who was in Delhi recently, describes the effect this way: "Despite the lack of gravity, the heart continues to pump at the same rate as it does on earth and blood tends to rush to the head, and the face and tongue swell up. All these are symptoms of motion sickness. The body takes anything between 24 and 36 hours to adjust to zero gravity." Soon after lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, Shukla also experienced the tremendous gravitational force or G-force that Rakesh Sharma, India's first astronaut, talked about when his Soviet Soyuz T-11 spacecraft took him to space in April 1984. Sharma recalled, “Because you are seated in the spacecraft looking upwards for lift-off, the G-force that you feel on your rib cage is four times the amount you feel on your waist. It presses against the spine, leaving very little space for the lungs to expand. So, breathing becomes difficult.” By launch day on June 25 , Shukla was only too eager to get off the ground. He had waited a month in quarantine and then faced several postponements of the Crew Dragon's launch for technical reasons. “When I was sitting in the capsule on the launch pad,” he says, “the only thought on my mind was: let's just go this time. When the ride started, I kept getting pushed back strongly in the seat. Then, suddenly, I felt nothing. There was silence and we were floating in vacuum. What a ride—it was amazing.” Far below, in the computerlined control room of Launch Complex 39A, his mother, Asha Shukla, who anxiously watched the spacecraft's ascent on a screen, wiped the tears from her eyes and broke out into a huge smile of joy and relief. When he reached the ISS, Shukla brushed aside the motion sickness and smiled a lot. Along with his three team members on Axiom Mission 4, he hugged the seven astronauts who had come to the space station earlier. Shukla joked, “I am learning like a baby, how to walk, speak and eat in space.” Ax-4 mission commander Peggy Whitson fixed a silver pin on the lapel of his deep blue overalls, designating Shukla as astronaut number 634—the 634th human to have orbited in space. The ISS is a multinational collaborative effort, involving the US, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, and was built in phases from 1998 to 2011. It is now an orbiting space laboratory the size of four tennis courts. So far, 280 astronauts from 23 countries had spent time at the ISS. Shukla is the first Indian astronaut to live on the ISS and only the second Indian to go into orbit after Rakesh Sharma's historic feat 41 years ago. Aware of the weight of the moment, Shukla said, “It is a privilege to be among the few who have had the chance to see Earth from this vantage point.” Two days later, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to him, Shukla had to strap his legs to the ground to stop bobbing around. How was the view from ISS, Modi asked. Shukla's words were as resonant as Sharma's in 1984. “The first thought was the feeling of oneness of the Earth—there were no boundary lines or borders of countries,” he said. “The second was when I saw India for the first time. It looked very big and grand, not like the 2-D paper maps of it.” A smiling Modi then told Shukla that he is giving him some homework, saying, “We have to take Mission Gaganyaan (India's indigenous human space exploration programme) forward, we must build our own space station and also have to land Indian astronauts on the moon. Your experiences will be very helpful for these missions.” NO FREE RIDE Modi was also disarmingly telling the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which sponsored Shukla's Rs 500 crore trip, that there were no free lunches or, in this case, space rides. Not that ISRO needed much goading. In

JUDGE IN THE DOCK

IN the complex world of Indian politics, where decisions are often made behind closed doors, parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju is on a sensitive mission. He is working to gather support from leaders across party lines for what could be a landmark moment in India's judicial history--the first impeachment of a high court judge, Justice Yashwant VarmaThe story that began with a fire in the judge's outhouse now transcends a simple corruption scandal. It lays bare the fault lines between India's judiciary and executive, exposing tensions that have simmered since the nation's founding. Dark clouds are gathering over the capital in more ways than one, and as the monsoon session of Parliament approaches, the case raises profound questions about evidence, process and power. Who watches the watchers when the watchers themselves stand accused? And what happens when the machinery of accountability becomes a weapon in institutional warfare? THE FIRE THAT LIT A THOUSAND QUESTIONS March 14, 2025, began as an ordinary Friday for the residents of Tughlaq Crescent, Delhi's tree-lined avenue housing judges and diplomats. Justice Varma, then serving on the Delhi High Court, was away in Bhopal with his wife. His daughter Diya remained at the No. 30 official residence, a sprawling bungalow. The household staff went about their routines, the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) guards maintained their posts, and nothing suggested that this night would alter the trajectory of Indian jurisprudenceAt approximately 11:35 pm, Diya heard what she later described as an explosion. Racing toward the sound with household staff, she discovered flames erupting from a locked storeroom situated near the servants' quarters, separated from the main residence by a boundary wall. Neither the CRPF personnel nor the guards stationed at the main gate initially responded, a detail that would later fuel conspiracy theoriesWhen the Delhi Fire Services arrived, breaking open the padlocked door with the help of security personnel, they encountered a scene that defied explanation. Station officer Manoj Mehlawat's spontaneous exclamation, captured on a firefighter's phone video, gave the case its most memorable soundbite: "Mahatma Gandhi mein aag lag rahi hai (Mahatma Gandhi is on fire)". The reference was unmistakable: stacks of 500-rupee notes bearing Gandhi's image lay burning on the floor, some charred, others half-consumed by flamesThe fire brigade's divisional officer, Suman Kumar, would later testify that he had "never seen anything like it" in his career. Multiple witnesses, including firefighters and police personnel, described currency notes piled up to one and a half feet high. Yet what happened next, or rather, what didn't happen, would prove equally significant. The Delhi Police took no action to secure evidence. No seizure memo was prepared, no panchnama drawn up. Not a single currency note was preserved for forensic examination. By dawn, the burnt cash had vanished, reportedly removed by persons unknown while the crime scene lay unguarded. News of the midnight fire might have remained buried in routine police logs had not someone-- the identity remains unknown--leaked the information to the media days later. The story exploded across news channels as the image of currency burning at a judge's residence struck at something fundamental in public consciousnessThe Supreme Court's institutional machinery responded with uncharacteristic speed. Within days, then Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna, requested a preliminary report from Delhi High Court chief justice D.K. Upadhyaya, who said that "the entire matter warrants a deeper probe". The SC collegium, in an extraordinary meeting, proposed Varma's immediate transfer to his parent high court in Allahabad, a clear signal the judiciary was distancing itself from potential scandalJustice Varma's actions, or lack thereof, on his return to Delhi on March 15 would later become central to the case against him. He did not visit the burnt storeroom immediately. He filed no police complaint about what he would later claim was a conspiracy to frame him. He accepted his transfer to the Allahabad HC without protest. To his critics, this behaviour suggested guilt. To his defenders, it reflected the shock and confusion of a man blindsided by events beyond his controlOn March 22, CJI Khanna constituted a three-member committee including Justices Sheel Nagu (Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana HC), G.S. Sandhawalia (Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh HC) and Anu Sivaraman of the Karnataka HC to conduct an "inhouse inquiry". Their 64-page report, submitted on May 3, reads like a judicial indictment. The committee found that `cash/money was found in the storeroom' based on `direct and electronic evidence'. More