Above the Fold: Top stories of the day
1. Four young female athletes made a suicide pact at a Sports Authority of India hostel in Kerala after alleged harassment by seniors. One of the four is dead.
2. Amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act, which would allow minors between 16 to 18 to be tried as adults for heinous crimes, passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
3. Parliament has been extended until May 13 to the government more time as it hopes to get crucial bills through.
4. The rupee has hit a 20-month low, and could end up at around 65 to the dollar.
The Big Story
Convicted film actor Salman Khan, who had been sentenced to five years in prison for a hit-and-run case when he killed one person, will get a chance to appeal his conviction in the Bombay High Court today. Khan's conviction and sentence had been issued on Wednesday, but because the order was not given to him in time, the High Court had given the actor interim bail. Today, as the court considers an appeal on the conviction, it will also once again consider whether he should be given bail.
The specifics of the matter will come down to technical legal reasons, just as the interim bail was simply a matter of the original judgment not reaching Khan in time. Yet, because of the immense scrutiny on the case, it is inevitable that it will also be seen as a test of the way the judicial system works.
In the eyes of much of the public and the law, Khan is a convicted killer even if it was through culpable homicide. In the eyes of his fans and much of Bollywood, he is an upstanding man treated harshly because of his celebrity status. More than either of these however, the eyes of the High Court will be on the conduct and verdict of the trial court judge. If the original conviction order passes a bare reading, bail might be a tough task.
The Big Scroll
Fans adore Salman Khan so much that they are willing to forgive his "excesses", which in this case involves killing a person. Bollywood has also swung behind him, thanks naturally to the immense business that he generates.
To get Scroll's Daily Fix, a compendium of all you need to know for the day (and a little more) on your phone, download our Android app.
Policying & Politicking
1. Party expulsions: Member of Parliament Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh, has been expelled for "indiscipline". Meanwhile, MP Pappu Yadav has also been expelled from the Rashtriya Janata Dal for criticising the party head.
2. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi once again took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was picking revenge over development by cancelling projects in Gandhi's constituency, Amethi.
3. The BJP's floor managers are working hard to ensure the Goods and Services Tax Constitutional Amendment Bill makes it through Parliament, by getting non-Congress parties to jump on board.
Giggle
Punditry
1. Rahul Gandhi's newfound activism, which has involved a lot of business bashing, shouldn't ignore the real issues when it comes to cronyism, writes Bhupesh Bhandari in the Business Standard.
2. BB Pande in the Indian Express writes that Juvenile Justice Act amendments were passed in undue haste despite plenty of democratic dissent.
3. The passage of the GST constitutional amendment would finally be a step towards a genuine single market for India, writes Dhiraj Nayar for Bloomberg, but in doing so the government shouldn't compromise on two key provisions.
4. Does the government really think it will get away by painting all of its critics as enemies of the state driven by foreign companies and nations, asks Sudeep Chakravarti in Mint.
Don't Miss
You or someone you love menstruates. And yet most of us know very little bit about it. Annalisa Merelli helps you fix that.
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1. Four young female athletes made a suicide pact at a Sports Authority of India hostel in Kerala after alleged harassment by seniors. One of the four is dead.
2. Amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act, which would allow minors between 16 to 18 to be tried as adults for heinous crimes, passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
3. Parliament has been extended until May 13 to the government more time as it hopes to get crucial bills through.
4. The rupee has hit a 20-month low, and could end up at around 65 to the dollar.
The Big Story
Convicted film actor Salman Khan, who had been sentenced to five years in prison for a hit-and-run case when he killed one person, will get a chance to appeal his conviction in the Bombay High Court today. Khan's conviction and sentence had been issued on Wednesday, but because the order was not given to him in time, the High Court had given the actor interim bail. Today, as the court considers an appeal on the conviction, it will also once again consider whether he should be given bail.
The specifics of the matter will come down to technical legal reasons, just as the interim bail was simply a matter of the original judgment not reaching Khan in time. Yet, because of the immense scrutiny on the case, it is inevitable that it will also be seen as a test of the way the judicial system works.
In the eyes of much of the public and the law, Khan is a convicted killer even if it was through culpable homicide. In the eyes of his fans and much of Bollywood, he is an upstanding man treated harshly because of his celebrity status. More than either of these however, the eyes of the High Court will be on the conduct and verdict of the trial court judge. If the original conviction order passes a bare reading, bail might be a tough task.
The Big Scroll
Fans adore Salman Khan so much that they are willing to forgive his "excesses", which in this case involves killing a person. Bollywood has also swung behind him, thanks naturally to the immense business that he generates.
To get Scroll's Daily Fix, a compendium of all you need to know for the day (and a little more) on your phone, download our Android app.
Policying & Politicking
1. Party expulsions: Member of Parliament Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh, has been expelled for "indiscipline". Meanwhile, MP Pappu Yadav has also been expelled from the Rashtriya Janata Dal for criticising the party head.
2. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi once again took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was picking revenge over development by cancelling projects in Gandhi's constituency, Amethi.
3. The BJP's floor managers are working hard to ensure the Goods and Services Tax Constitutional Amendment Bill makes it through Parliament, by getting non-Congress parties to jump on board.
Giggle
First Pranab's house - @RashtrapatiBhvn. Now Rahul Gandhi's office - @OfficeOfRG. Instead of building brands, we are branding buildings, a?
— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) May 7, 2015Punditry
1. Rahul Gandhi's newfound activism, which has involved a lot of business bashing, shouldn't ignore the real issues when it comes to cronyism, writes Bhupesh Bhandari in the Business Standard.
2. BB Pande in the Indian Express writes that Juvenile Justice Act amendments were passed in undue haste despite plenty of democratic dissent.
3. The passage of the GST constitutional amendment would finally be a step towards a genuine single market for India, writes Dhiraj Nayar for Bloomberg, but in doing so the government shouldn't compromise on two key provisions.
4. Does the government really think it will get away by painting all of its critics as enemies of the state driven by foreign companies and nations, asks Sudeep Chakravarti in Mint.
Don't Miss
You or someone you love menstruates. And yet most of us know very little bit about it. Annalisa Merelli helps you fix that.
“That time of the month,” “my days,” “Aunt Flo,” “the rag” – the list of euphemisms that refer to menstruation is never ending. We don’t want to talk about it, we won’t even utter the word: When’s the last time you heard a woman say, “I’m menstruating?”