- Former Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who died on Saturday, set the line for the Bharatiya Janata Party spokespersons for nearly two decades. Despite being the Opposition leader, he helped the United Progressive Alliance government in 2008 on the Indo-US nuclear deal, writes Liz Mathew in Indian Express.
- Despite being a senior minister and wielding great influence in the ruling BJP, Arun Jaitley was open to people disagreeing with his views, says Arghya Sengupta in this tribute in The Wire. Whether as lawyer or politician, the law was his first love.
- Arun Jaitley often brought up his participation in the Bofors investigation involving Rajiv Gandhi to burnish his credentials. But did he do enough to probe the defence scam that brought the Gandhi government down? Praveen Donthi in the Caravan says he may have not.
- Jaitley’s elevation to the top brass of the Delhi Cricket Association sent out positive signals; selectors were given the freedom to “fearlessly” pick the team purely on merit, writes Vijay Lokapally in The Hindu.
- Two years ago, a nine-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court declared that privacy was a fundamental right. But the promise that this judgement held out has not been fulfilled, argues Apar Gupta in Indian Express.
- Indian Administrative Service officer Kannan Gopinathan has submitted his resignation from the civil service in protest of how the Centre has dealt with Jammu and Kashmir. “Over the past few days, I have been really perturbed by what is happening in the country, wherein a large section of our population have had their fundamental rights suspended,” he told The Hindu. “There has been a lack of response to it.”
- After a month, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has exceeded Tory expectations, writes Katy Balls in the Guardian. But now, the hard part begins. The prime minister has been wooing the public, but the return of parliament could bring him crashing back down to earth.
- Judiciary is the sentinel that guards the fortress of personal liberty against a rampaging government, writes Gautam Bhatia in Mumbai Mirror. “But its actions in plea moved by Kashmiri civil servant Shah Faesal does not inspire confidence.”
- Contrary to the American Bar Association’s principles of public defense, which call for defense lawyers to be independent of the judiciary, judges in most Texas counties decide which lawyers get cases, how much they are paid, and whether their motions, reports Neena Satija in Texas Monthly.
- Jofra Archer, the Barbados-born pace sensation, who turned out for England this World Cup, wasn’t boasting when in one of his tweets, a couple of years ago, he had advised batsmen facing him to carry an extra helmet in their kit bags. Austin Coutinho writes in Firstpost on the young fast bowler who is causing ripples in international cricket.
Reading
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1
Centre changes election conduct rules days after HC tells EC to provide poll documents to petitioner
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Shirish Patel: The urban planner who looked beyond the vanity of Mumbai’s privileged
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2024 Jawad Memorial Prize for Urdu-English Translation: Read the winning poems
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Backstory 2024: When I trekked two hours in Himachal for an interview
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1971 surrender photo removed from Army chief’s office, replaced by Mahabharata-inspired painting
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Interview: East India Company to Big Tech – how corporations think about knowledge
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Bangladesh panel alleges India’s involvement in enforced disappearances during Sheikh Hasina’s rule
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How Zakir Hussain helped bridge the North-South divide in Indian classical music
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Why has the number of Hajj pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir fallen sharply?
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This book proposal won Sohini Chattopadhyay a NIF fellowship for ‘The Day I Became a Runner’