The Latest: Top stories of the day

1. Both Assam and West Bengal go into the next phase of polls today, amid allegations of "ghost voting" in Bengal.

2. Actor Anupam Kher was stopped at the Srinagar airport as he tried to visit the National Institute of Technology, which has been the centre of protests and violence this past week.

3. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will raise the Masood Azhar issue in China. The neighbouring country has blocked the move to designate the Jaish-e-Mohammed chief as an international terrorist.

The Big Story: Answers for Kollam

The ashes of Kollam hold many questions. On Sunday morning, firecrackers set off at the Puttingal temple broke into a blaze that has killed at least 107 people and injured 380. Soon afterwards, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's government ordered a judicial inquiry and a Crime Branch probe into the incident. But it does not take a judicial or criminal investigation to ask some basic questions of accountability in a poll-bound state.

Officials at every level, from the district collector to the additional district magistrate, had denied permission for the fireworks. According to reports, copies of the additional district magistrate's order were marked to the police and revenue officials. The local tehsildar's report had also recommended that permission be given only after the temple authorities made sure that 11 neighbouring houses had no objections to the display. Earlier, a woman had complained that fireworks in previous years had damaged her house. The display broke several regulations, including the ban against bursting crackers after 10 pm. Why, then, were local police officials unable to prevent it?

The fact that the show went on suggests blatant bullying by the powerful temple administration, which was reportedly backed by local Hindu groups and politicians hoping to gain electoral mileage. The district collector and the additional district magistrate, both Muslim, were also accused of communal bias in their orders and pressured to change their stand. The woman who had complained against the fireworks was reportedly threatened and asked to withdraw her plea. Due process and the rule of law seem to have been subverted at every step by political pressures and the worst communal instincts. A case has been registered against the temple administration and the contractors responsible for the fireworks. But will that correct the excesses that are allowed in the name of electoral politics?

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's big story

Rohan Venkataramakrishnan traces a history of firework tragedies in India.

Politicking and policying

1. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is elected president of the Janata Dal (United).

2. The first water train to drought-hit Marathwada is to reach Latur today.

3. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam promises smart phones in its poll manifesto.

Punditry

1. In the Hindu, Shiv Visvanathan points out that, in the prohibition debate, there is silence on the most pressing question: how to moderate the consequences of alcoholism?

2. In the Indian Express, Christophe Jaffrelot on how Bhagat Singh never believed in religion or violence.

3. In the Business Standard, Parthasarathi Shome on how the democracies of the West hold mixed lessons for India.

Don't Miss...

Anumeha Yadav on why the Centre has not provided relief to drought-hit states through MGNREGA:

The Modi government’s claim that it has allocated the highest ever outlay of Rs 38,500 crore to the scheme is not true. In fact, the highest-ever outlay since the scheme was first implemented in 2006 was Rs 40,100 crore, in 2010-11.

Despite prime minister Modi labelling the programme “a living monument to the failures of the Congress”, his government, in its last two budgets, has maintained the outlay for the scheme at levels close to the previous year’s allocation. But when you take inflation into account, this means a decline a real terms.

For the last five years, the central government has allotted too little money to run the scheme to guarantee 100 days of employment. This means that at the end of each financial year, states have not had sufficient funds for its workers, or to pay the cost of materials used under the scheme.