Front Page
An abduction, encounter and assassination bid, it was a turbulent Sunday for south Asia.
Seven Indians have been abducted in Afghanistan, possibly by the Taliban, The Indian Express reports, based on an announcement by the ministry of external affairs (MEA). The seven are employees of KEC, an Indian infrastructure and electricity major in Afghanistan. Along with their Afghan driver, they were abducted by armed gunmen while travelling in northern Afghanistan Sunday. However, no group has claimed responsibility yet, The Times of India reports.
There was also a bomb blast inside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan. The mosque was being used as a voter registration centre, and the blast killed at least 12 people and wounded 33, First Post reports officials as saying.
Five militants, including Burhan Wani’s aide Saddam Paddar and a Kashmir University assistant professor, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Shopian Sunday. This sparked widespread protests that “left five civilians dead and over 30 injured”, The Hindu reports. Paddar was the last active member of Burhan’s social media-savvy group of militants, Rahiba Parveen reported for ThePrint Sunday.
Pakistan’s interior minister Ahsan Iqbal survived an assassination attempt Sunday. He was shot at as he was leaving a political rally near his hometown of Narowal, The Hindu reports front page.
Thunderstorm warnings have been issued across 13 states and two union territories for the next two days, with schools in Haryana asked to remain closed by the union home ministry, NDTV reports. Just last week, superstorms had killed over 126 people in five states.
Speaking of Haryana, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said Sunday that “namaz should be read in a masjid or an idgah, and, if short of space, they (Muslims) should read it in their private spaces”, The Times of India reports. The comment was made in response to a demand from Right-wing outfits that the CM and the BJP clarify their stand on offering namaz in public.
Journalist Arnab Goswami has been booked by Maharashtra police for abetting the suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer, Anvay Naik, and his mother, The Times of India reports. Naik named Goswami and two others in his suicide note, saying he was forced to commit suicide because the three had not paid him dues to the tune of Rs 5.40 crore.
According to a New York Times report, a “significant number of India’s 200,000 annual traffic deaths” are tied to poor vision.
Five women were raped every day in Delhi in the first 100 days of 2018, Hindustan Times reports. In 97 per cent of the cases, the accused was known to the victim, according to the police.
Karnataka Assembly elections with ThePrint
Wondering who to vote for in the Karnataka election? Just go with your mutt. D.K. Singh reports that mutts belonging to different castes, sub-castes and sects in Karnataka are “estimated to be in the hundreds”. Their heads hold tremendous clout over their followers, and many of them “are known to work behind-the-scenes for a particular party or candidates during elections”.
Rohini Swamy interviewed B. Sriramulu, the “dear friend” of scam-accused mining baron G. Janardhan Reddy who just can’t get enough of Modi’s charisma. An MP, and party leader second in stature only to former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in Karnataka, Sriramulu said, “If we win one seat, 100 or 200 seats, we will win it only because of Modiji.”
The Congress wants to remind Telugu speakers in Karnataka of their kinship with the people of Andhra Pradesh in a bid to “stoke the anger… about the Centre not providing special status to Andhra Pradesh”, Rohini Swamy reports.
BJP’s manifesto for the Karnataka assembly polls is out. It promises gold for brides below the poverty line, loan waivers and investment in irrigation among other things, PTI reports.
Business Class
Another Indian could soon be the head of a tech company. WhatsApp business executive Neeraj Arora is in the running to take over the reins at the world’s largest messaging app, reports The Economic Times.
In the past 10 months, more than 2,000 on-site ATMs were closed by banks, reports Business Standard. It writes, “Cost-cutting measures by banks… have been one of the key reasons for reduction in the number of ATMs.”
News it’s just kinda cool to know
WhatsApp will now make avoiding people a little bit easier: Through a new domain ‘wa.me’, users can now open specific chats without visiting the app. The whole thing is a little complex, so read The Financial Express walk-through to know and understand more.
Ranveer Singh said in an interview that his family ‘wasn’t rich enough’, and therefore could only afford trips to Singapore, Indonesia and the United States during his childhood, Zee News reports. Soon after the interview aired, #YoRanveerSoPoor started trending on Twitter. Check out what the citizens of the internet had to say to Ranveer Singh.
So, Raghuram Rajan might not to be the next governor of the Bank of England. Asked about the reports, he was quoted as replying by BOOM:“I am very happy with my current job and have not searched for, nor been offered, any other.” MP Shashi Tharoor later took to Twitter to say that “(it) seems I was taken in by fake news” when he shared a report confirming Rajan’s consideration for the job, News18 reports.
Point of View
The GST Council, at its 27th meeting last week, decided to push for additional cess on sugar over and above GST. Editorials in The Times Of India, The Indian Express, and The Hindu have criticised the move, writing that it will defeat the very purpose of the GST.
Politicians often reach out to Dalits by eating at their houses. The Telegraph, in its editorial, criticises the move, writing, “The whole notion of politics via food is regressive, insensitive and dangerous.”
The price of crude oil is going north and there are no signs of relief. Brookings India chairman Vikram Mehta writes in his column in The Indian Express, “Whatever it (the government) does in response to a high oil price regime, it must not ask the PSEs to bear the burden.”
Eminent economist and Marxist politician Ashok Mitra passed away last week. Former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in his column in The Telegraph, remembers his encounters with Mitra.
The high-pitched election campaign continues in Karnataka. Journalist Saba Naqvi, in her column in The Times Of India, writes, “…There is no grand narrative and in each constituency, the story changes in favour of the candidate who best manages local coalitions.”