On the money
I am curious about how the RBI governor can make such a statement so many months later without feeling at least a tad embarrassed (“Still counting notes deposited after demonetisation: RBI Governor Urjit Patel”). In fact this points to some serious discrepancies which should be investigated. As any banker will tell you, the RBI could not have issued new notes without a count of old notes coming in from each bank. You don’t just release new notes to banks without any record or reconciliation as this will just open up serious fraud and operational risk issues.
If indeed the release of new notes was done sensibly, then it should be easy to tally all the numbers and get the totals. Second, if information on the quantum of returned cash is not available after even eight months then there is something seriously amiss. Either leakages have occurred, people have personally benefited, or the cash coming in is less than the new cash issued, pointing to fraud or money-laundering again. Either way this is too serious to ignore. – Vivek Chand
State of the nation
It’s hard to believe that Muslims rescuing a cow would make news (“Watch: A cow fell into a pit at a cemetery. Muslims rushed to the rescue”). And it’s ridiculous that they are being applauded for saving a cow and not just any animal. In a country where we should be talking about equality and tolerance, we are branding people and animals too! – Yasmin Kazimi
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This is the most patronising article I have seen in a while. You seem to think its news if a group of Muslims show humanity. People are just people. – Ramesh Sreekantan
Tax takers
This is happening in other states too and CBI should make inquiries and take action (“CBI raids: Jharkhand principal I-T commissioner’s residence raided, Rs 3.5 crore in cash seized”). It is common knowledge that our Income Tax department is the most corrupt. – Bharat Dalal
High road
While ascertaining that India has the lowest rates of injuries in road accidents, the author misses an important point, which is that a lot of accidents that are not fatal go unreported (“How the Supreme Court’s flipflop on highway liquor ban could lead to bad roads, more deaths”). – Kapil Malhotra
One-sided view
This is the most one-sided piece of journalism I have ever read (“Branded as Bangladeshis: In Noida, anger turns to fear for domestic workers after police raid”). Here are the facts. The maid spent the night at a neighbour’s house after fleeing from the flat where she was accused of stealing money. CCTV footage shows her emerging out of the other apartment escorted by a security guard. She looks absolutely alright.
Second, she was handed over to her husband and after that the mob started pelting stones and entered the premises. This information comes straight from the horse’s mouth. Your piece doesn’t present the residents’side of story at all.This is typical of the left-leaning view where poor equals victims. Isn’t there a possibility of the domestic help was actually stealing money and the lying about it? Please be more balanced. – Yogita Jamwal
Cricket legend
This is a great analysis (“Numbers don’t lie: Kohli, Tendulkar are great but Viv Richards remains ODI cricket’s original legend”). Viv Richards was best ODI Batsman of our era. However, if you take into account factors like pressure on the sportsman (Sachin and Kohli have faced more pressure than any other batsman while playing for the country), team support (when Sachin was batting there was no one of his calibre to back him, while Viv Richards and Kohli played with a super team) and performance against opposition – Sachin performed very well against Australia, which was at the top of its game in his time – then Sachin might share the top spot with Richards. – Suresh Jayaraj
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This is a nice compilation. As someone who has followed the game closely for many decades, I couldn’t agree more. Viv Richards was way ahead of his time as far as ODI batting was concerned. With his destructive capabilities, he probably would have averaged 60+ had he played in this era of bigger bats, smaller boundaries, bouncers and field restrictions.
Would have loved to see Ricky Ponting also in this analysis, he’s a serious big match player and slayer of bowling attacks. – Sesha Agnihotram
Top job
We have a bowling coach, a batting coach and a fielding coach, in addition to a physiotherapist and trainer (“CAC calling Kohli: Shastri’s only good for pep talks, for everything else you have Dravid and Zaheer”). So what is the role of a head coach? He receives an exorbitant renumeration for just pep talks. No wonder everyone fancies the job of head coach. In Ravi Shastri’s case, its just a continuation of his work as a commentator, but with more money. – NVVS Gopinath
Callous act
I’m a fan of Scroll.in but this particular article is not up to your standards and is a huge disappointment (“Watch: These daredevil forest officials in Madhya Pradesh pulled a goat out of a python’s mouth”). This is nothing but a 200-word report based on information from a second-hand source about a crowdsourced video? Also, the title is very misleading: this is not an act of daredevilry, this is stupidity. It’s also cruel to snatch the python’s meal out of his mouth. That forest officials and a snake rescuer are doing this show the kind of professionals we have at the task. Having said that, some wildlife rescue operations might look cruel but they may have possibly been saving the python by rescuing it from stone pelting villagers.
These kind of incidents aren’t uncommon in India and it’s an opportunity to educate people about it. You should run such videos through environment and wildlife experts and then comment on it. – Vinay Datla
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The python was just being a python. Why did the forest officials have to deprive it of its meal? What foolish people. And you make it sound as though they were heroes! Plus, the goat died anyway. What good did the whole exercise do? – August Freeman
Picture this
Bubla Basu’s lyrical review brought back the essence of the film and the book so vividly (“Book versus movie: ‘The English Patient’ is luminous on the page and on the screen”). She captures the enchantment of the work and also gives details about the actors, the storyline, the music, the costumes et al with elan. Elegant writing. – Renu Balakrishnan