The Latest: Top stories of the day

1. A joint investigation team from Pakistan will visit on March 27 to probe the Pathankot attack, said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
2. The Haryana government has said that the state will no longer provide water to Delhi.
3. The Bombay High Court has commuted the death sentence of German Bakery blast convict Himayat Baig.

The Big Story: Modi and the minority

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the World Sufi Forum in Delhi on Thursday, praising the diversity of Islam and its legacy of peace, but adding that "terrorists distort a religion". For a leader who came to power calling himself a Hindu nationalist and mostly ignoring the minority, this was an important gesture. But Thursday's meet also revealed the limits of Modi's engagement with Islam.

Having dusted off accusations about his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, Modi executed an image makeover in 2011 by launching the Sadbhavana Mission and going on a three-day fast for communal harmony. But since then, the prime minister's references to the minority have usually been oblique, made under the rubric of national unity and "sab ka saath, sab ka vikaas". In the campaign for 2014, he made no attempt to address Muslims directly or assuage their fears about security. After coming to power, Modi has carefully avoided any overt engagement with the community, staying clear mosques and iftar parties, perhaps to keep his Hindutva constituencies happy. But in February last year, possibly spurred by growing international concern about religious freedom in India, he asserted that his government would not tolerate violence against any religion. In Abu Dhabi a few months later, the prime minister visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, a gesture that was watched with interest back home.

Given the history of Modi's sullen reserve on minorities, Thursday's address was a breakthrough. But why is it that he cannot speak of Islam without speaking of terror?

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's big story
Read an excerpt from John Elliot's book, describing Modi's thoughts on Islam, way back in 2001.

Politicking and policying
1. The Rajasthan police now says it arrested four Kashmiri students to protect them from the Bajrang Dal.
2. The United States-based Ford Foundation has been taken off the government's watch list.
3. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has reportedly said that intercourse between same sex partners is not a crime.

Punditry
1. In the Hindu, Chinmayi Arun points out the flaws in the Aadhaar bill, saying the rights to liberty and freedom of expression cannot survive if the right to privacy is not respected.
2. In the Indian Express, Nirupama Subramaniam on the clash between the BJP's apparent concern for nationalism and its tacit support of ally Shiromani Akali Dal's stance on the Satluj-Yamuna link canal.
3. In the Business Standard, Akash Prakash counsels caution while going after defaulters and cronyism.

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Overrated Outcast on how the Taj Mahal was really named after a group of hotels:

Anyway, to get to what I want to talk about today, let’s go back to a balmy New Delhi evening of September 2015. Oh, what a happy day! After years of campaigning, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation finally changed the name of Aurangzeb Road. My enthusiasm knew no bounds. It was proof that in India, justice may be delayed but it is never denied.

Let this be a lesson to all future tyrants: you can sacrifice countless lives at the altar of your ambition. You can oppress minorities, create permanent fissions among the populace and set in motion the ultimate downfall of your empire. But a few centuries after you die, we will throw a coat of cheap paint over a signboard, carelessly stencil in the name of someone we like more than you, and then pretend that you didn’t exist at all. Sure, my glee was a tad bittersweet because they named the road after another Muslim. But hey, I can always appreciate a small step in the right direction.

So imagine my excitement when I heard that brave social media warriors on Twitter demanded that we do to our history books the same thing we did to that signboard: clear it of any mention of the Mughals.