Front Page
The BJP’s Kathua MLA Rajiv Jasrotia, one of those who supported the accused in the January rape and murder of an eight-year-old, was inducted into the Jammu & Kashmir cabinet Monday. Hindustan Times reports front page today that, in total, six members of the BJP and two of the PDP were inducted, with deputy CM Nirmal Singh replaced by BJP colleague Kavinder Gupta. The Times of India tells us that Gupta has called the Kathua rape “a minor issue”, while the The Indian Express explains that the reshuffle “comes amid adverse reports by local RSS and BJP leaders that the party is seen to have completely surrendered to the PDP in Kashmir”.
As the fallout of the reshuffle continues to unfold, ousted J&K forest minister Chaudhary Lal Singh has said he will “continue his fight to restore ‘Dogra pride’, which has been ‘severely hit’ by the gang rape and murder of the eight-year-old Bakerwal girl”, Amrita Nayak Dutta reports for ThePrint.
What does this reshuffle tell us about the fate of the J&K government in Kashmir? ThePrint‘s Maneesh Chhibber reports that it is “a clear sign of two things”:
- The PDP-BJP alliance is on its last legs — the divorce will happen; the question that remains is when.
- With the Kathua rape-murder, the BJP has finally found a way to revive its floundering political fortunes in the Jammu region.
No peace (accord) for Nagaland yet: Minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju has said AFSPA will continue in Nagaland “as it is a ‘special case’ and the ‘peace agreement’ hasn’t been finalised there yet”, The Hindu reports. AFSPA was recently repealed in Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh.
Two suicide blasts by the so-called Islamic State ripped through Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, killing 25 people, including nine journalists. The Kabul police spokesman said “the bomber disguised himself as a journalist and detonated himself among the crowd”, The Hindu reports front page. This is the deadliest single attack involving journalists in the country since at least 2002.
The Jeddah bomber was Indian: In the 4 July 2016 Jeddah blast, which injured two security officers, Saudi Arabia has now confirmed “on the basis of DNA tests”, that the suicide bomber who struck outside the US Consulate was Fayaz Kagzi, an Indian national and alleged operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, The Indian Express reports.
One of the biggest obstacles to swift justice in India seems to be the central government. The Supreme Court has reprimanded the Centre for their “couldn’t-care-less and insouciant attitude” that is clogging the justice delivery system with frivolous cases, The Times of India reports. If you want to understand why our Supreme Court has been in the news so much lately, watch this explainer by Apurva Vishwanath:
The Trinamool Congress has won 30 per cent of the seats in West Bengal’s panchayat elections uncontested as “the opposition parties could not even put up a candidate”, The Hindu reports. The daily also tells us that this is “an all-time record since the first such exercise was held in the state in 1978″. The three-tier panchayat election is scheduled for 14 May.
The special task force (STF) set up to check encroachments removed 475 temporary structures on 30 stretches of roads across Delhi on the weekend, and is likely to intensify efforts in the run-up to the Supreme Court’s deadline. The STF will submit its report to the court on 15 May, Hindustan Times reports as its lead story today.
WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum has resigned from Facebook and its board, “reportedly over the company’s attempts to weaken encryption and collect more detailed information on users”, Quartz reports. Koum created the world’s biggest messaging app, now with 1.5 billion monthly users, before selling it for $19 billion in 2014.
Nitin Gadkari wants to gift Maharashtra a ‘special package’ worth around Rs 13,650 crore over five years to “address agrarian distress in 14 suicide-prone districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada”, The Indian Express reports. This comes at a time when the BJP’s alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is in disarray, and the Congress and the NCP are closing ranks on the opposite side.
PM Modi recently tweeted that 100 per cent of Indian villages now had access to electricity, a BJP campaign promise. Former finance minister P. Chidambaram calls his claim a “complete jumla”, and says he’s taking credit for work done by past governments, as The Times of India reports.
Business Class
The news of Aditya Ghosh stepping down as president of India’s most profitable airline, IndiGo, came as a surprise to many. In an interview with Business Standard, he said that not bidding for Air India was a team decision.
Remember the full-page ads of e-wallet companies in the wake of demonetisation? Even so, many of them are reportedly struggling. Business Standard reports that “most wallet companies are now selling mutual funds, powering digital transactions and loyalty programmes for retail firms, selling point-of-sale machines…” because their business could never pick up.
News it’s just kinda cool to know
88 years ago (1930), today, ‘Pluto’ was suggested as the name for the then newly discovered ninth planet. It was the brainchild of a British schoolgirl, Venetia Burney. Venetia saw her grandfather reading news about the planet one morning, and being a mythology enthusiast suggested the name Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. Her grandfather, a retired librarian at Oxford, sent her suggestion to a professor of astronomy at the university. And the rest is history, including Pluto’s title as a planet.
Macron and Trump planted a tree at the White House together when the French President visited the US a week ago. But alas, the tree is missing. Apparently it’s been pulled from the ground and quarantined as “parasites on the tree could spread to others on the White House property”, Reuters reports.
Point of View
With Leisang, a village in Manipur, finally getting electricity, the government of India has claimed that all inhabited villages in the country have been electrified. The Times of India writes in its editorial that it’s a milestone but the target should now be to provide round-the-clock reliable power.
Tripura’s Biplab Deb has been providing plenty of headlines since he became the chief minister. Both The Hindu and The Indian Express have criticised the chief minister for his irrational remarks.
The government of India returned the file of Justice K.M. Joseph’s elevation to the collegium, stoking an unprecedented standoff. Kapil Sibal, lawyer and senior Congress leader, in his column in The Hindu, writes that the government’s opposition is “unprincipled”.
As opposition to the implementation of Aadhaar continues, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla argues in his column in The Times Of India, “Well-meaning activists opposing private Aadhaar use are trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
The top leaders of the two Koreas met for the first time in over a decade last week, igniting hopes of peace and tranquility on the Korean peninsula. Carnegie India director C. Raja Mohan writes in his column in The Indian Express, “India, Pakistan could take a cue from peace talks in the (Korean) Peninsula”.
