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Tuesday, May 14, 2024
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The FinePrint

Xi Jinping is courting France. India must make sure its European partner isn’t seduced

Xi won’t be walking away from Europe with a win in hand, but his visit will almost certainly ignite arguments about the continent’s geopolitical future.

How Punjab farmers sacrificed high income for a big cause—they gave up Pusa-44 this year

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann thanked farmers for accepting the ban and staying away from the water-guzzling paddy variety Pusa-44. But convincing them about the larger public good is a work-in-progress.

Look at ‘Muslim quota’ from the lens of Pasmandas. Modi-BJP have been wooing them for long

Affirmative action in India has always been a secular project. The argument against Muslim quota ignores three key questions.

Mathura culture, Mahabharata Period — ASI digs Govardhan Hill after 50 years

After Ramayana, the new historiography has shifted its focus on dating Mahabharata, deepening Hindu civilisational history, and finding physical sites.

Karnataka, Maharashtra—Why Phase 3 could mean BJP falling short of the magic number 272

As in the second phase, the BJP-led NDA’s problem in the third phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha election is that it has an awful lot of seats to defend — 80 out of the 93 seats that go to polls.

Azad, Antony, Geetha—6 candidates to watch in 2024. Their win can reshape politics in states

While Chandra Shekhar Azad is a streetfighter who has caught the fancy of Dalit youth, Anil Antony is the face of the BJP’s fresh social engineering attempt.

Punjab is undergoing an indie film revolution. Challenging the Jatt Sikh domination in cinema

From Anmol Sidhu to Gurvinder Singh, Punjabi indie filmmakers have gained international critical acclaim. But their films have few takers in Indian theatres.

India must kill terrorists. Nijjar blowback shows it also needs laws to guide assassins

The UK, US and Israel have long staged targeted killings of criminals, terrorists and their adversaries. The moral outrage against India’s assassination campaign is profoundly spurious.

Masala, morality, real estate—Bengaluru dosa walk turns into overload of history & heritage

The dosa isn’t the only hero of the day. A few people in the group are also chutney supremacists. 'Chutney has to be great, sambhar is secondary,' one attendee says.

Vacant, white-haired villages & ‘money order economy’ — how development eluded Ratnagiri

Amid political promises & potential projects, Ratnagiri’s youth migrate in search of better prospects, while region’s elderly are left behind in hamlets without vikas and cellphone towers.

On Camera

Brokerages & hedge funds make a killing as India’s inexperienced youth flocks to the equity market

Indians aged 20-30 are trading in options market in droves, but know nothing about it & so keep losing money. If losses mount, it could undo gains India saw in investment culture, analysts fear.

Pensionless Maha Vir Chakra awardee who trained Mukti Bahini continues to fight for rights

Chiman Singh, injured in 1971 India-Pakistan war, was discharged as non-pensioner in 1972. In his petition, he states denial of pension is contrary to settled law.

What’s common between Netflix Chamkila and Trudeau’s trouble-infested Canada? They don’t get Punjab

Even in the weeks leading up to Chamkila’s assassination there were massacres every other day. To airbrush all of this is sheer intellectual cowardice if not a crime.