The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to examine the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Bill being passed into law as a money bill.
2. The Delhi University registrar attempted to settle the debate over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bachelor's degree saying it is indeed authentic, despite some discrepancies.
3. The government claims Jharkhand tribal activist Gladson Dungdung is not barred from flying aboard, even though his passport had been confiscated on Monday.
The Big Story: Consolation Prize
Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, who expects to be reinstated after appearing to have won the Uttarakhand Assembly floor test on Tuesday, declared it not just a victory for his party but for the people of the state. Final confirmation will only come once the Supreme Court declares the results of the floor test, but most indications suggested that the Congress had garnered enough numbers to retain the state.
The leadership both in the state and the Centre will sell this as a victory against Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah's attempt to wrest control of the state without an electoral victory. This much is accurate although it is more a reflection of the BJP's faulty legal tactics than anything to credit the Congress with.
The claim that this verdict reaffirms confidence in Rawat and the Congress however would be an outright falsehood. It was Rawat's state unit that was unable to pass the Appropriations Bill in the Uttarakhand Assembly. And it was the central leadership's inability to engage factions within the state unit that were unhappy with Rawat that led to the crisis in the first place.
What followed was the unseemly image of Rawat managing to hold the rest of his unit together, accompanied by allegations of horse-trading and the use of money to buy off legislators. Remember, the Congress has not suddenly won Uttarakhand: It has simply retained the state, and it still has much to answer for.
The Big Scroll
After Delhi and Bihar, has BJP lost an Uttarakhand election that wasn't even supposed to happen? And Anita Katyal explains how political considerations in UP may have finally ended the political saga in Uttarakhand.
Politicking & Policying
1. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi, who is 91, has said that he will be the chief minister if his party wins upcoming Tamil Nadu elections.
2. In Kerala, the richest candidate in the fray also happens to be a liquor baron contesting on behalf of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
3. Buoyed by developments in Uttarakhand, the Congress has decided to step up its attacks on the Bharatiya Janata Party in Parliament.
4. India and Mauritius have signed an amendment to a long-standing treaty between the two countries, which brings capital gains into the tax net.
5. The United Kingdom has declined to deport controversial businessman Vijay Mallya because he has a valid residence permit in the country.
Punditry
1. Was the death of Indian Express photographer Ravi Kanojia, who died in an accident while on duty, preventable? Probably, says Anand Sankar in Newslaundry.
2. Pamela Phillipose in the Indian Express examines the use of government ads as a way of controlling the media.
3. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar in the Business Standard has three prescriptions for how the Information and Broadcasting Ministry can clean up the news media.
Don't Miss
Mridula Chari explains how Mizoram's push for oil palm plantations could end up hurting the diversity that it is hoping to save.
"A new study confirms what previous studies around the world have already been saying – that traditional shifting cultivation is less destructive to biodiversity than monocultures such as teak and palm oil plantations, which actually lead to a shrinking of biodiversity. This means that the state government's policy may actually lead to a shrinking of biodiversity."
