Above the Fold: Top stories of the day
1. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar claimed that India's anti-terrorism strategy now involves killing terrorists through other terrorists.
2. A company in Mumbai rejected a man's job application because he is Muslim.
3. The Bharatiya Janata Party's Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Vijender Gupta, wants the President to intervene in Delhi to break the constitutional deadlock between the Delhi government and the Centre.
4. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi justified the beef ban on grounds of faith and asked anyone who wants to eat beef to go to Pakistan.
5. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad wants to know why the proposed Ram temple doesn't deserve a joint session of Parliament.
The Big Story: Congress gets back into the groove
Completely wiped out in the May 2014 national elections, the Congress was dormant for almost a year after that, fighting its own demons, such as a leadership crisis and Gandhi family dynamics. Unbelievably, as the debates swirled all around, Rahul Gandhi went off on a mysterious eight week long sabbatical.
But ever since his return, a little more than a month ago, it's been a different story. A rejuvenated Congress has taken on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party with vigour. It helped that the Narendra Modi government was trying to pass the controversial Land Acquisition Bill. The Congress tore into the proposed legislation with some smart one-liners, taking a leaf out of Modi's book, in fact – Rahul Gandhi even managed to impress people with his oratory. For the first time since taking office, it seemed Modi was on the back foot. All the BJP could do was launch attacks on the murky land deals of Gandhi's brother-in-law, Robert Vadra.
On the first anniversary of Modi's government, the Congress's energy seems to have reached a crescendo, with the party pulling out all stops to spoil the BJP's celebrations.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
The Congress has big plans to put a spanner in the works during the first anniversary of Modi's government. Battle plans include over 200 press conferences across states and deputing bigwigs to attack the government on specific points of contention.
Politicking & Policying
1. The Janata Parivar hits yet another hurdle as Lalu Yadav wants to fight alongside Nitish Kumar's bête noire, former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi.
2. Experts feel that the stringent Juvenile Justice Bill, 2014 will legitimise the illegal detention of children, allowing police to press criminal charges.
3. Agitating for Scheduled Caste status, 5,000 Gujars have blocked the busy Delhi-Mumbai railway line.
4. To acquire land for the airport in Navi Mumbai, the Maharashtra goverment is thinking of replicating Gujarat's land pooling model.
Giggle
Punditry
1. In The Hindu, Nama Ahuja raises questions around the transfer of the Director General of the National Museum, Delhi, at a time when the museum has begun to show signs of a turnaround.
2. In The Indian Express, RC Bhargava argues that Modi has bought in the most reform since 1991.
3. Bhupesh Bhandari, in The Business Standard, writes about tech entrepreneur Rahul Yadav and how India must learn to deal with mavericks like him rather than reject them.
4. In The Hindu, Balveer Arora lays out his view on how to work India’s complex federal system and grapple with the architecture of Centre-State power-sharing.
Don't Miss
Bhanwar Meghwanshi writes about a disagreement in Rajasthan over land which led a group of Jats to attack Dalits, killing four.
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1. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar claimed that India's anti-terrorism strategy now involves killing terrorists through other terrorists.
2. A company in Mumbai rejected a man's job application because he is Muslim.
3. The Bharatiya Janata Party's Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Vijender Gupta, wants the President to intervene in Delhi to break the constitutional deadlock between the Delhi government and the Centre.
4. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi justified the beef ban on grounds of faith and asked anyone who wants to eat beef to go to Pakistan.
5. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad wants to know why the proposed Ram temple doesn't deserve a joint session of Parliament.
The Big Story: Congress gets back into the groove
Completely wiped out in the May 2014 national elections, the Congress was dormant for almost a year after that, fighting its own demons, such as a leadership crisis and Gandhi family dynamics. Unbelievably, as the debates swirled all around, Rahul Gandhi went off on a mysterious eight week long sabbatical.
But ever since his return, a little more than a month ago, it's been a different story. A rejuvenated Congress has taken on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party with vigour. It helped that the Narendra Modi government was trying to pass the controversial Land Acquisition Bill. The Congress tore into the proposed legislation with some smart one-liners, taking a leaf out of Modi's book, in fact – Rahul Gandhi even managed to impress people with his oratory. For the first time since taking office, it seemed Modi was on the back foot. All the BJP could do was launch attacks on the murky land deals of Gandhi's brother-in-law, Robert Vadra.
On the first anniversary of Modi's government, the Congress's energy seems to have reached a crescendo, with the party pulling out all stops to spoil the BJP's celebrations.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
The Congress has big plans to put a spanner in the works during the first anniversary of Modi's government. Battle plans include over 200 press conferences across states and deputing bigwigs to attack the government on specific points of contention.
Politicking & Policying
1. The Janata Parivar hits yet another hurdle as Lalu Yadav wants to fight alongside Nitish Kumar's bête noire, former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi.
2. Experts feel that the stringent Juvenile Justice Bill, 2014 will legitimise the illegal detention of children, allowing police to press criminal charges.
3. Agitating for Scheduled Caste status, 5,000 Gujars have blocked the busy Delhi-Mumbai railway line.
4. To acquire land for the airport in Navi Mumbai, the Maharashtra goverment is thinking of replicating Gujarat's land pooling model.
Giggle
Journey of CM @ArvindKejriwal. My #cartoon #KejriwalVsLG #100DaysOfMufflerMan #100DaysOfJantaKaCM pic.twitter.com/yT3Cro2NvB
— MANJUL (@MANJULtoons) May 21, 2015Punditry
1. In The Hindu, Nama Ahuja raises questions around the transfer of the Director General of the National Museum, Delhi, at a time when the museum has begun to show signs of a turnaround.
2. In The Indian Express, RC Bhargava argues that Modi has bought in the most reform since 1991.
3. Bhupesh Bhandari, in The Business Standard, writes about tech entrepreneur Rahul Yadav and how India must learn to deal with mavericks like him rather than reject them.
4. In The Hindu, Balveer Arora lays out his view on how to work India’s complex federal system and grapple with the architecture of Centre-State power-sharing.
Don't Miss
Bhanwar Meghwanshi writes about a disagreement in Rajasthan over land which led a group of Jats to attack Dalits, killing four.
The killings has been followed by incendiary comments on social media by members of the Jat community. In a comment that circulated on WhatsApp, Ram Ratan Akodia, who claims to be a social worker, congratulated the Jats of Dangawas, saying they had bravely put into place arrogant Dalits who had been "emboldened" by reservations and the Scheduled Caste and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. In a post on Facebook, a man named Sis Pal Ola said, "Dedhos [a pejorative term for Dalit] should not lose sight of their place in society. They have begun to cut down the very people whose charity they lived on."