Steven Spielberg may recognise today's' India.

"The government on Thursday moved to bury the ghost of retrospective taxation by seeking to amend the law, a move that is expected to end vexatious litigation with 17 companies, including Vodafone and Cairn, apart from addressing criticism about uncertainty of policy regime in the country," Times of India (TOI). "It, however, comes with the rider that the companies will have to withdraw all cases and not demand interest on the money being refunded." It is not clear if the government can lay down conditions when it has been forced into humble surrender after "A French court froze 20 residential properties worth 20 million euros ($24 million) belonging to the Indian government in Paris while upholding a petition filed by Cairn Energy seeking to force the Narendra Modi government to fork out $1.7 billion international arbitration award." The retrospective tax law was passed in 2012 by the previous Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and "enabled the government to collect tax from earlier years even though they were not taxable at the time," ZeeNews. But why has it taken 7 years for this government to do the right thing? "While the NDA government, in opposition at that time, termed this use of power as 'tax terrorism', the issue has dragged for almost seven years," The Indian Express (TIE). The finance ministry has repeatedly "asserted India's 'sovereign right to taxation' cannot be questioned overseas". The problem is that politicians and bureaucrats in India consider themselves 'sovereign' over the people, like the Mughal and British kings, wikipedia. In the past the sultans and emperors used to indulge in 'shan-o-shaukat, which means 'pomp and show', (wikipedia), while today's sultans live in the exclusivity of Lutyens Delhi (newslaundry), quarantined away from the 'great unwashed', the voters and taxpayers of India. In June, Reuters reported, "Shareholders in Devas Multimedia have sued Air India in an effort to recover sums Devas won in arbitration awards against the Indian government and seize its flagship carriers foreign assets, according to a US District Court filing. The shareholders said Devas and its affiliates were owed more than $1.5 billion by the Indian government." Air India had cumulative losses of Rs 70,820 crore (Rs 780.20 billion) as of 31 March 2021, according to Minster of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh, CNBC. The government has put all of Air India up for sale including 100% of "the low-cost arm Air India Express and 50 percent of AISATS, which provides cargo and ground handling services at major Indian airports", Business Today (BT). Naturally, Tata Group is said to be thinking of an indemnity clause in the sale contract in case the Devas award was enforced, BT. So, "Is this a fresh start, the beginning of an open, predictable, and fair relationship betweenNew Delhi and global capital?" asked Andy Mukherjee. "It'll require a lot more evidence to answer the question in the affirmative." No chance. "The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a show cause notice of about Rs 10,600 crore (Rs 106 billion) to e-commerce major Flipkart and its promoters for alleged violation of foreign exchange law, official sources said on Thursday." US retail giant Walmart bought Flipkart for $16 billion in 2018 on which it paid a tax of Rs 7,439 crore (Rs 74.39 billion), Economic Times (ET). The Reserve Bank (RBI) has told Mastercard not to issue any new cards as it has not complied with data localization rules, wrote Andy Mukherjee. "In April, the monetary authority imposed similar restrictions on American Express Co and Discover Financial Services' Diners Club cards." Foreigners need not despair. Indians are treated even worse. Tax authorities raided offices of the newspaper Dainik Bhaskar because it exposed how various governments in India were concealing the number of deaths due to the coronavirus second wave in April, CNN. If they can't get us on anything they can throw us in prison indefinitely under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Gautam Bhatia. As in the film Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, where people are arrested because they may have been thinking of committing a crime, wikipedia. May seem surreal. Actually, it is very real.