Above the Fold: Top stories of the day
1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to lay the foundation stone for Andhra Pradesh's new capital city, Amaravati today.
2. A report by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists estimates that Pakistan could be the fifth-largest nuclear power in the world in 2025.
3. An army aircraft crash-landed in Shillong on Wednesday, injuring two soldiers.
The Big Story:
People are already complaining about the fact that politics has taken over in Sunpedh, the Haryana village where a group of upper-caste Rajput men allegedly poured petrol on and set on fire a family of Dalits, killing two children in the process. Over the last day-and-a-half, over social media and across soundbytes, the narrative has gone from figuring out what went wrong in Sunpedh, to whether this is the result of "saffron policies" and, for others, how the Bharatiya Janata Party is not to blame.
But of course the story was political from the beginning even before the politicians turned up in Sunpedh. Dalits and Rajputs have been at it in the village for years now, with the murder of three Rajputs last year. Eleven Dalits, including family members of those who were burnt, had been named accused in that case, which had even prompted authorities to order police protection to the Dalit families who were being tried in the case.
India is, by and large, still a terrible place to be a member of a lower caste community. This was very true under the United Progressive Alliance and it would be unreasonable to expect that this could change within a year-and-a-half under the National Democratic Alliance. The story here isn't one of BJP vs Congress, nor even is it of Rajputs vs Dalits in Sunpedh. It's about the fact that, nearly seven decades after the country officially banned caste discrimination, little children are still being burnt alive because of it.
Politicking & Policying
1. Punjab continues to remain tense as Sikh activists are still protesting against incidents of sacrilege and the killing of two youngsters by police last week.
2. The Ministry of External Affairs is sparring with the Home Ministry over who gets final cut on anti-terror accords signed with other countries.
3. The National Commission for Minorities concluded that the Dadri lynching was a pre-meditated act, not a spontaneous one.
4. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will clarify his party's stance on its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, at the Sena's Dusshera rally today.
5. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh turns 90, with a grand sort-of celebration planned.
Punditry
1. Karan Mahajan in the New Yorker writes of the two different Asian Americas, one filled with prosperity and the other with racism.
2. India needs a new modernism, writes Praveen Swami in the Indian Express, one based on reason not beliefs.
3. Newslaundry hosts a statistical battle over whether intolerance has gone up under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's watch.
Don't Miss
Ipsita Chakravarty writes of the Durga Puja digests that offered everything to the reader.
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to lay the foundation stone for Andhra Pradesh's new capital city, Amaravati today.
2. A report by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists estimates that Pakistan could be the fifth-largest nuclear power in the world in 2025.
3. An army aircraft crash-landed in Shillong on Wednesday, injuring two soldiers.
The Big Story:
People are already complaining about the fact that politics has taken over in Sunpedh, the Haryana village where a group of upper-caste Rajput men allegedly poured petrol on and set on fire a family of Dalits, killing two children in the process. Over the last day-and-a-half, over social media and across soundbytes, the narrative has gone from figuring out what went wrong in Sunpedh, to whether this is the result of "saffron policies" and, for others, how the Bharatiya Janata Party is not to blame.
But of course the story was political from the beginning even before the politicians turned up in Sunpedh. Dalits and Rajputs have been at it in the village for years now, with the murder of three Rajputs last year. Eleven Dalits, including family members of those who were burnt, had been named accused in that case, which had even prompted authorities to order police protection to the Dalit families who were being tried in the case.
India is, by and large, still a terrible place to be a member of a lower caste community. This was very true under the United Progressive Alliance and it would be unreasonable to expect that this could change within a year-and-a-half under the National Democratic Alliance. The story here isn't one of BJP vs Congress, nor even is it of Rajputs vs Dalits in Sunpedh. It's about the fact that, nearly seven decades after the country officially banned caste discrimination, little children are still being burnt alive because of it.
Politicking & Policying
1. Punjab continues to remain tense as Sikh activists are still protesting against incidents of sacrilege and the killing of two youngsters by police last week.
2. The Ministry of External Affairs is sparring with the Home Ministry over who gets final cut on anti-terror accords signed with other countries.
3. The National Commission for Minorities concluded that the Dadri lynching was a pre-meditated act, not a spontaneous one.
4. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will clarify his party's stance on its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, at the Sena's Dusshera rally today.
5. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh turns 90, with a grand sort-of celebration planned.
Punditry
1. Karan Mahajan in the New Yorker writes of the two different Asian Americas, one filled with prosperity and the other with racism.
2. India needs a new modernism, writes Praveen Swami in the Indian Express, one based on reason not beliefs.
3. Newslaundry hosts a statistical battle over whether intolerance has gone up under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's watch.
Don't Miss
Ipsita Chakravarty writes of the Durga Puja digests that offered everything to the reader.
Though pujabarshikis are still published, Calcuttans of a certain vintage will tell you their heyday was in the 1960s and ’70s. If you were a child growing up in those decades, there were long afternoons to be filled once school shut for the puja vacations. One of the things you did before you hit the pandals, bought toy guns that went off with a satisfying crack and fell sick eating hajmi goli bought at mela stalls was get your hands on that year’s puja digests. For many Calcuttans of that generation, memories of puja vacations are threaded with adventures and characters from a galaxy far, far away.
