The Big Story: Breaking bread

In addition to all the oil and gas talk and business deals, Narendra Modi's visit to Doha, Qatar, over the weekend included a rather unexpected image: The dapper Indian prime minister, pocket square and all, sitting amidst hundreds of uniformed Indian labourers at a Workers' Camp in the city. Modi later also tweeted about "smiles and snacks", and spoke to them about their concerns, promising action.

massive amount of money to the country. draconian kafala system still operational in Qatar, as being akin to slavery.

The joint statement issued at the end of Modi's visit included a reference to the Qatar side briefing the India side "on the reform in labour laws which would protect the interest of skilled and unskilled labour", but it remains to be scene what will actually be done. Modi simply thanked the Qatari Emir for hosting Indians in his country.

Hopefully his second visit to the Gulf will convince the prime minister that New Delhi needs to be paying closer attention to the needs of its citizens in the region that sends more money to the country than all Foreign Direct Investment put together.

The Big Scroll
Exploitation of labour in the Gulf begins right at home in India. Low oil prices are seriously hurting the Gulf – and the 7 million Indians who live there. The true story behind reports of hundreds of labourers dying to build Qatar's World Cup 2022.

Political Picks

1. The Election Commission has written to the Law Ministry asking for legal powers to countermand polls in cases where there is evidence of cash-for-votes.
2. The Congress' chief ministerial candidate in Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, is facing a spot of embarrassment with the Enforcement Directorate sending a notice to his son, Raninder Singh, in connection with alleged foreign bank accounts.
3. More Congressmen are calling for Vice President Rahul Gandhi to be put in charge of the party, with former law minister Ashwani Kumar saying "younger people" should be given charge, and former Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh saying Rahul Gandhi is the "de facto" chief, and should "take over formally".
4. Murmurs continue to emerge about the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam joining hands with the ruling National Democratic Alliance, although Jayalalithaa's party leaders have denied it.
5. Reports continue to emerge from Jawahar Bagh, the scene of the clashes in Mathura: the Indian Express tells the story of a Delhi lawyer topping the list of cost records kept by the Netaji cult, while the Telegraph looks at the other bills lying around.

Giggle

Punditry
1. "In the two years of Modi's prime ministership, the BJP's principal achievement has been to make the unsayable, sayable", writes Mukul Kesavan in the Telegraph.
2. Manas Chakravarty in Mint looks at the terribly difficult decision up ahead for Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan in Tuesday's monetary policy review.
3. Weeding out corruption from Kashmir must be the first priority, writes Sajad Padder in the Indian Express, saying the highly politicised civil society of Kashmir stays silent on this.

Don't Miss
Anoop Sarkar explains how common Malayalam slang terms came from sources as random as an infamous German warship and a particularly disliked British officer.

"Sir Arthur Rowland Knapp was a British officer of the Indian Civil Services, who served as the collector of the Malabar district of the Madras presidency. His inexperience and lack of understanding about the nuances of local culture led to a lot of his administrative reforms being ineffective and unpopular.

It is believed that even after he was long gone from Malabar, Sir Knapp’s name became synonymous with incompetence; eventually being assimilated into Malayalam as Knappan."

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