Front page
Despite its outreach to the lower castes, BJP remains a Brahmin-Baniya club: A detailed analysis of the ruling party’s hierarchy by ThePrint reveals it is still dominated by the upper castes and has little room for minority communities.
Centre tries to restore provisions of SC/ST Act struck down by court. The union cabinet Wednesday approved a bill aimed at restoring key provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act that were struck down by the Supreme Court in March. The move follows protests from Dalit groups, the opposition and members of the NDA government, reports Hindustan Times.
SIT wants Amit Shah statement in Naroda Gam massacre case discraded: The SIT formed to look into the Naroda Gam massacre case of the 2002 post-Godhra riots has asked a special court to discard Amit Shah’s deposition “as it was done merely to ‘support the key accused'”, former state minister Maya Kodnani, The Indian Express reports.
SC says punishing only men for adultery hits right to equality. The apex court is also set to examine if a person can be sent to jail on the grounds that he had consensual sex with someone’s wife, The Times of India reports.
The armed forces are short of 9,000 officers: In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, Subhash Bhamre, minister of state for defence, said that, as on 1 January, the Army topped the list with over 7,200 fewer officers than its sanctioned strength, The Tribune reports. Answering another question, he stated, “No new proposal for a defence cooperation has been received from China.”
Government may clear two names for Supreme Court: The government is planning to clear the appointment of two high court chief justices, Indira Banerjee and Vineet Sharan, to the Supreme Court in the coming week, but not that of Justice K.M. Joseph , a top government functionary told Hindustan Times Wednesday.
75% of corporate funding for political parties since 2004 went to BJP. The Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR) has revealed that there has been a 613 per cent rise in corporate donations to political parties since the days of the UPA-I. The BJP has received roughly 77.7 per cent of the donations made since 2004 – the party’s share stands at Rs 1,413 crore, with the Congress receiving Rs 405 crore. While this was widely reported on TV Wednesday, no major daily has carried the news.
India wants ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ censored. The I&B ministry has taken strong note of the “improper depiction” of Jammu & Kashmir in the Hollywood blockbuster and asked the external affairs ministry to intervene, Amrita Nayak Dutta reports for ThePrint.
Business Class
RBI hikes repo rate for second time in a row. In line with market expectations, the monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank Wednesday hiked the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.50 per cent, reports The Economic Times.
WhatsApp to start charging business users. Looking to monetise WhatsApp services, Facebook plans to start charging businesses for sending marketing and customer service messages, according to The Hindu.
News it’s just kinda cool to know
‘Kung fu’ nuns to the rescue as sexual harassment rises in Ladakh. Fourteen Buddhist nuns trained in kung fu imparted self-defence training to local girls at a six-day workshop in Ladakh, reports Hindustan Times.
Imran Khan’s swearing-in guest list is becoming bigger. As he awaits the government’s nod to invite PM Narendra Modi to his swearing-in ceremony on 11 August, Pakistan’s next prime minister has extended invitations to Indian actor Aamir Khan and former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Navjot Singh Sidhu, reports The Times of India.
Point of View
Sanjib Baruah, professor of political studies at New York’s Bard College, in his column for The Indian Express, questions the authorities’ silence on whether those left out of the NRC will be deported. “Perhaps deportation is not what anyone in authority has in mind. Even in that case, can a democracy permit 4 million people to be in a state of ‘liminal legality’?” he writes.
The RBI has increased the repo rate by 0.25% for the second straight time. In an editorial, The Times of India lists the reasons behind the move and applauds it. “There is little that either RBI or government can do about external risks. Therefore, the appropriate approach at this stage is to ensure that domestic policy developments do not enhance economic risks,” it says.
An editorial in The Tribune talks about the urgent need for all leaders to refrain from politicising the NRC. Calling Mamata Banerjee’s reaction “shocking and violent”, it says, “Instead of being a rabble-rouser, Didi should help the genuine citizens in the process of appeal. Meanwhile, leaders of the BJP should also understand their responsibility as the ruling party and avoid making inflammatory statements.”
Prime Time
Imran Khan’s swearing in
India Today TV’s Gaurav Sawant deliberated on whether Narendra Modi should skip Imran Khan’s oath-taking ceremony as Pakistan PM as it may look like another exercise where “India ends up looking naive”.
Sushant Sareen, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, said, “It would be a blunder to go. If you got an invitation, you could send some minister or somebody. I don’t see why the Prime Minister needs to go.”
Former high commissioner to Pakistan, G. Parthasarathy said India needed to go along with the consensus and watch the reactions of the leaders of Bangladesh and Afghanistan. “We cannot be isolated in this neighbourhood,” he added.
NRC=Article 35A?
News 18 India’s Sumit Awasthi compared the National Register of Citizens (NRC) with Article 35A of the Constitution, which defines permanent residents of J&K. “While nobody speaks in favour of our Indian refugees in Kashmir, many have lit up the torch in favour of Bangladeshi immigrants. Is this not hypocrisy?” asked Awasthi.
Awasthi’s panel consisted of at least seven people, including the BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain and the CPM’s Suneet Chopra. After a heated debate between Awasthi and political analyst Somnath Roy, the latter left the show half-way.