Front Page
Religion is the opium of the people, said Karl Marx, which is probably why the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala firmly believes the Supreme Court order on the entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala temple must be upheld. But not everyone agrees.
The erstwhile royal family of Pandalam and the temple priest have pulled out of the state government’s proposed talks on implementing the order. The Indian Express and The Hindu call the development a “setback”.
“‘Let the government first file a review plea in the Supreme Court, then we can talk,” Hindustan Times quotes one of the temple’s priests as saying. “State BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai said the party would not backtrack from its decision to protect the faith, even at the cost of a bloodbath,” reports The Indian Express.
But this story doesn’t make it to The Times of India front page. It didn’t even make it to national news, it was only given a tiny box on page 12, with the daily pocket toon weighing in on the recent struggles of the CPI(M):
However, the paper’s Nation section opens with a report about a mob in Bihar beating up school girls for resisting sexual harassment. The 32 girls “were thrashed so badly by the boys, their family members and residents of Darpakha village in the Supaul district that they had to be hospitalised. The condition of two of them is critical”.
The Indian Express puts the story on its front page, titled “Bihar mob beats up girls in school over harassment complaint”.
Then there is the continuing fear and loathing around migrant workers in Gujarat, at the heart of which lies an accusation of rape involving a 14-month-child victim and a 19-year-old suspect from Bihar. The Hindu reports, “More than 5,000 migrant people working in factories as casual labourers and daily wage earners have fled fearing violent attacks on them amidst unabated incidents of violence targeting migrants in north Gujarat districts.”
The Indian Express reports that Gujaratis are driving out non-Gujaratis from the state, with violence spreading to over six districts. Migrants were allegedly issued death threats, but Hindustan Times quoted the state police chief as saying that migrants were mostly “leaving because of the holiday season”.
Meanwhile, according to The Times of India, a production of Ramlila was stalled in Varanasi because, “Instead of mouthing dialogues on stage, the actors portraying Ram and Lakshman were sitting on dharna in full costume along with other members of the Ramlila committee. They were protesting against the unhygienic conditions around the (Dansera) pond, which were so revolting that they had taken ill.”
Prime Time
Can the mahagathbandhan be successful in 2019?
Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami asked whether the mahagathbandhan will be successful in the 2019 elections?
The question came as the Samajwadi Party ruled out an alliance with the Congress for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly polls, days after Mayawati’s BSP did the same thing.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “Any coalition government can work only when a party at the Centre takes everyone along. How will Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee follow Rahul Gandhi’s lead?”
Former journalist Ashutosh added, “Is the BJP confident that Narendra Modi will be the Prime Minister if NDA comes to power in 2019?”
News it’s just kinda cool to know
Experts at the University of the Basque Country, Spain, have created “quantum artificial life” for the first time, with the “units” also programmed to reproduce, mutate, evolve and die, just like any other living being. This breakthrough may help understand whether the origin of life can be explained via “quantum mechanics”, a theory of physics that describes the universe in terms of the interactions between subatomic particles, Dailygalaxy reports.