Above the Fold: The day's top stories
1. A surprising rate cut from the central bank spurred the Sensex to breach the 30,000-point mark for the first time in its history.
2. Bills to replace ordinances relating to coal and to foreign direct investment in insurance were passed in the Lok Sabha and will now head to the upper house.
3. Reliance Infrastructure bought Pipavav Defence for Rs 2,082 crore, the biggest-ever deal in the defence sector in India.
4. The government earned more than Rs 60,000 crore on Day 1 of its spectrum auction.
The Big Story: Banning Reality
A BBC film featuring the interview of one of the convicts in the December 2012 gangrape-murder case has been banned in India, with the government promising to even prevent its broadcast abroad. Authorities say it deserves to be banned both on technical grounds, since they claim the filmmaker didn't get the proper clearances, and also on more public relations grounds, saying that it will end up hurting India's image. The film itself features the gangrape-murder convict saying he has no remorse and that women who are out late are asking to be raped.
As always, it turned into a political battle, with the current government blaming the previous administration for giving the BBC journalist permission. The Home Ministry and jail authorities did not know that the filmmaker had spoken to the gangrape-murder convict and that he had made remorseless remarks until six months after the interview. Most political parties have called for the film to be banned, though a few dissenting voices were heard in Parliament.
The BBC has decided to advance its broadcast of the film, India's Daughter.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
Read a sampling of what the family members and experts say in the BBC film. India's Daughter must be telecast, argues Anna MM Vetticad, because it forces us to confront our country's anti-women attitude. But Kavita Krishnan believes the movie could have an impact on the ongoing judicial process in the gangrape-murder case.
Need-to-Know 1: Kejriwal Camp
Senior Aam Aadmi Party leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were booted out of the party's top decision-making body after weeks of acrimonious squabbling between their camps and the one headed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The vote to remove them ended up being much closer than expected and despite winning, Kejriwal comes off looking much more autocratic.
Need-to-Know 2: Safe Land-ing
The government is considering making some sort of concession on the Land Acqusition legislation to replace the ordinance, such as bringing back a consent clause, so that it can pass the bill in Parliament. It was buoyed by some support for the insurance and coal bills in the Lok Sabha, although the former is going to face a tough fight in the upper house.
Politicking: Top political stories
1. Maharashtra has decided not to continue with an announced plan of providing 5% reservations in jobs to Muslims.
2. Up to 58 Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament asked the chairperson to begin impeachment proceedings against a Madhya Pradesh High Court judge accused of sexually harassing another judge.
3. Sajjad Lone, the former separatist whom the Bharatiya Janata Party brought into the coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir, is sulking and has refused to start work at the Animal Husbandry ministry because he believes it is too insignificant.
4. Congress leaders are fiercely lobbying for the top spot in the party's media cell.
Giggle
Punditry: The day's best commentary
1. The Times of India manages to surprise and breaks from the position of its bellicose sister TV channel on the BBC film by insisting in a leader that it ought to be broadcast.
2. Jean Dreze argues in the Hindu that the Arun Jaitley has given us a Nehruvian budget ‒ and that's a bad thing.
3. Harish Damodaran maintains in the Indian Express that the current approach to inflation measuring could hurt farmers, now that India has an inflation target.
4. Sanjay Hegde in the Hindu insists that banning India's Daughter is unnecessary, illegal, untenable and redundant.
5. Tamal Bandyopadhyay in Mint points out Arun Jaitley's smile after being asked about the RBI and connects that to yesterday's out-of-turn rate cuts.
6. Sevanti Ninan, also in Mint, says we choose to have a problem with documentaries instead of the things they depict.
Don't Miss
Supriya Sharma sifts through the mining law to expose fundamental differences between what was promised and what it actually does.
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
1. A surprising rate cut from the central bank spurred the Sensex to breach the 30,000-point mark for the first time in its history.
2. Bills to replace ordinances relating to coal and to foreign direct investment in insurance were passed in the Lok Sabha and will now head to the upper house.
3. Reliance Infrastructure bought Pipavav Defence for Rs 2,082 crore, the biggest-ever deal in the defence sector in India.
4. The government earned more than Rs 60,000 crore on Day 1 of its spectrum auction.
The Big Story: Banning Reality
A BBC film featuring the interview of one of the convicts in the December 2012 gangrape-murder case has been banned in India, with the government promising to even prevent its broadcast abroad. Authorities say it deserves to be banned both on technical grounds, since they claim the filmmaker didn't get the proper clearances, and also on more public relations grounds, saying that it will end up hurting India's image. The film itself features the gangrape-murder convict saying he has no remorse and that women who are out late are asking to be raped.
As always, it turned into a political battle, with the current government blaming the previous administration for giving the BBC journalist permission. The Home Ministry and jail authorities did not know that the filmmaker had spoken to the gangrape-murder convict and that he had made remorseless remarks until six months after the interview. Most political parties have called for the film to be banned, though a few dissenting voices were heard in Parliament.
The BBC has decided to advance its broadcast of the film, India's Daughter.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
Read a sampling of what the family members and experts say in the BBC film. India's Daughter must be telecast, argues Anna MM Vetticad, because it forces us to confront our country's anti-women attitude. But Kavita Krishnan believes the movie could have an impact on the ongoing judicial process in the gangrape-murder case.
Need-to-Know 1: Kejriwal Camp
Senior Aam Aadmi Party leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were booted out of the party's top decision-making body after weeks of acrimonious squabbling between their camps and the one headed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The vote to remove them ended up being much closer than expected and despite winning, Kejriwal comes off looking much more autocratic.
Need-to-Know 2: Safe Land-ing
The government is considering making some sort of concession on the Land Acqusition legislation to replace the ordinance, such as bringing back a consent clause, so that it can pass the bill in Parliament. It was buoyed by some support for the insurance and coal bills in the Lok Sabha, although the former is going to face a tough fight in the upper house.
Politicking: Top political stories
1. Maharashtra has decided not to continue with an announced plan of providing 5% reservations in jobs to Muslims.
2. Up to 58 Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament asked the chairperson to begin impeachment proceedings against a Madhya Pradesh High Court judge accused of sexually harassing another judge.
3. Sajjad Lone, the former separatist whom the Bharatiya Janata Party brought into the coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir, is sulking and has refused to start work at the Animal Husbandry ministry because he believes it is too insignificant.
4. Congress leaders are fiercely lobbying for the top spot in the party's media cell.
Giggle
Indian beef cuts! Cartoon #BeefBan pic.twitter.com/WGunZqCIBA
— R Prasad (@rprasad66) March 4, 2015Punditry: The day's best commentary
1. The Times of India manages to surprise and breaks from the position of its bellicose sister TV channel on the BBC film by insisting in a leader that it ought to be broadcast.
2. Jean Dreze argues in the Hindu that the Arun Jaitley has given us a Nehruvian budget ‒ and that's a bad thing.
3. Harish Damodaran maintains in the Indian Express that the current approach to inflation measuring could hurt farmers, now that India has an inflation target.
4. Sanjay Hegde in the Hindu insists that banning India's Daughter is unnecessary, illegal, untenable and redundant.
5. Tamal Bandyopadhyay in Mint points out Arun Jaitley's smile after being asked about the RBI and connects that to yesterday's out-of-turn rate cuts.
6. Sevanti Ninan, also in Mint, says we choose to have a problem with documentaries instead of the things they depict.
Don't Miss
Supriya Sharma sifts through the mining law to expose fundamental differences between what was promised and what it actually does.
"By amending the law in this manner the government hasn't made mines available for competitive bidding," Shrivastava said, "but instead saved them from it."
