Above the Fold: The day's top stories
1. India's cricket team has been dominant at the World Cup, winning five in a row and topping its group.
2. Pakistan now has more atomic weapons than India, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
3. The Calcutta High Court has awarded Rs 50,000 in relief to a professor who was jailed for making fun of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
4. The government argued in the Supreme Court that it is the job of judges to decide cases, not to appoint other judges.
The Big Story: Mining Clearance
We knew the Land Bill was going to face trouble in the Rajya Sabha, but Tuesday gave the government a taste of just how much grief it is going to get for going the Ordinance Raj route at the end of last year. The Mining Bill, the first of the laws meant to replace ordinances, has gotten stuck thanks to tremendous Opposition obstruction in the Rajya Sabha and will likely have to be palmed off to a select committee.
This came even as the Lok Sabha passed the legislation to replace the Land Acquisition ordinance, which is expected to face the stoutest opposition in the upper house. The efforts of the government to get the Mining Bill through were clear for everyone to see, as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley tried every argument to have the house discuss the Bill.
Floor leaders will however meet today to finalise a select panel for the Bill and a timeline to deal with it, marking the first success for the Opposition. Jaitley, angered at the Opposition's tactics, said the Rajya Sabha has to remember the impact of opposing "each action of the directly elected house".
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
If the government doesn't feel the need to take into account the consent of land owners to acquire land, whose interests is it safeguarding?
Need-to-Know 1: Firing Squad
The Aam Aadmi Party put on record its objections against senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who have been accused of trying to ensure that the party didn't win in the Delhi elections. Yadav and Bhushan have promised to respond, but word from the party suggests that moves are being made to ensure they are booted out of the National Executive when it meets at the end of the month.
Need-to-Know 2: Releasing Whom?
The Bharatiya Janata Party claims to have put its coalition partner, the People's Democratic Party, on notice after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed announced the release of a separatist leader from prison. But documents reveal the technical backing for the decision came during Governor's rule, and there is little the Centre can do about it now. The alliance is strained at the moment.
Politicking: Top political stories
1. The Trinamool Congress has begun collecting material against its own senior leader Mukul Roy.
2. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy claims to have been offered the BRICS bank presidency. In the real world though, senior BJP leaders Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha are in the fray for the post.
3. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi's first rally in Uttar Pradesh has been canceled by local authorities, citing board exams.
4. The Tribal Affairs Ministry has tried to make last-ditch efforts to stop new forest clearance guidelines that remove requirements for gram sabha consent.
Giggle
Punditry
1. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena is a master at diplomacy, something Modi will have to keep in mind, writes KP Nayar in The Telegraph.
2. A leader in Mint asks whether it is time for India to consider getting rid of provisions that stand in the way of free speech.
3. India's health ministry and its approach to health policy are both a complete mess, says Subir Roy in the Business Standard.
4. The attacks on writers in Tamil Nadu are a sign of a Dravidian, casteist blowback writes Badri Seshadri in the Times of India.
5. Indrajit Hazra in the Economic Times says the unhealthy Buddhadev Bhattacharjee reflects his party, just as the CPM reflects the man.
Don't Miss
As Nagaland frets about loss of identity, women's choices have come under scrutiny.
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1. India's cricket team has been dominant at the World Cup, winning five in a row and topping its group.
2. Pakistan now has more atomic weapons than India, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
3. The Calcutta High Court has awarded Rs 50,000 in relief to a professor who was jailed for making fun of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
4. The government argued in the Supreme Court that it is the job of judges to decide cases, not to appoint other judges.
The Big Story: Mining Clearance
We knew the Land Bill was going to face trouble in the Rajya Sabha, but Tuesday gave the government a taste of just how much grief it is going to get for going the Ordinance Raj route at the end of last year. The Mining Bill, the first of the laws meant to replace ordinances, has gotten stuck thanks to tremendous Opposition obstruction in the Rajya Sabha and will likely have to be palmed off to a select committee.
This came even as the Lok Sabha passed the legislation to replace the Land Acquisition ordinance, which is expected to face the stoutest opposition in the upper house. The efforts of the government to get the Mining Bill through were clear for everyone to see, as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley tried every argument to have the house discuss the Bill.
Floor leaders will however meet today to finalise a select panel for the Bill and a timeline to deal with it, marking the first success for the Opposition. Jaitley, angered at the Opposition's tactics, said the Rajya Sabha has to remember the impact of opposing "each action of the directly elected house".
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
If the government doesn't feel the need to take into account the consent of land owners to acquire land, whose interests is it safeguarding?
Need-to-Know 1: Firing Squad
The Aam Aadmi Party put on record its objections against senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who have been accused of trying to ensure that the party didn't win in the Delhi elections. Yadav and Bhushan have promised to respond, but word from the party suggests that moves are being made to ensure they are booted out of the National Executive when it meets at the end of the month.
Need-to-Know 2: Releasing Whom?
The Bharatiya Janata Party claims to have put its coalition partner, the People's Democratic Party, on notice after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed announced the release of a separatist leader from prison. But documents reveal the technical backing for the decision came during Governor's rule, and there is little the Centre can do about it now. The alliance is strained at the moment.
Politicking: Top political stories
1. The Trinamool Congress has begun collecting material against its own senior leader Mukul Roy.
2. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy claims to have been offered the BRICS bank presidency. In the real world though, senior BJP leaders Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha are in the fray for the post.
3. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi's first rally in Uttar Pradesh has been canceled by local authorities, citing board exams.
4. The Tribal Affairs Ministry has tried to make last-ditch efforts to stop new forest clearance guidelines that remove requirements for gram sabha consent.
Giggle
Mir Suhail on the vile obfuscations in sections of Indian media. #Kashmir pic.twitter.com/t9cvg3bBMa
— Mirza Waheed (@MirzaWaheed) March 10, 2015Punditry
1. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena is a master at diplomacy, something Modi will have to keep in mind, writes KP Nayar in The Telegraph.
2. A leader in Mint asks whether it is time for India to consider getting rid of provisions that stand in the way of free speech.
3. India's health ministry and its approach to health policy are both a complete mess, says Subir Roy in the Business Standard.
4. The attacks on writers in Tamil Nadu are a sign of a Dravidian, casteist blowback writes Badri Seshadri in the Times of India.
5. Indrajit Hazra in the Economic Times says the unhealthy Buddhadev Bhattacharjee reflects his party, just as the CPM reflects the man.
Don't Miss
As Nagaland frets about loss of identity, women's choices have come under scrutiny.
"Naga society clings to a myth: that non locals have brought rape and other so-called foreign taints to Nagaland. The easy target is the illegal Bangladesh immigrant (or IBI), who can disappear easily because he is believed to have no proper identity nor responsibility to the place he inhabits."