A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Denied permission for roadshow, Modi travels in seaplane on last day of campaign for Gujarat elections: Rahul Gandhi, also campaigning in the state, questioned Modi’s silence on the 2016 attack on four Dalits in Una.
  2. Six people, including father-in-law, sentenced to death for killing Dalit man in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupur: The court acquitted his mother-in-law and two others for lack of evidence. 
  3. Retail inflation rises to a 15-month high of 4.88%: Rising food prices due to heavy rains in November may have been one of the factors behind the increase.  
  4. BJP government orders investigation into kissing contest in Jharkhand, party leaders demand apology: The BJP also accused Christian legislators from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha of destroying the Santhal culture.  
  5. Ernakulam court finds accused Ameerul Islam guilty in Kerala law student’s rape-murder case: The prosecution has demanded the death sentence for the convict.  
  6. SC’s Constitution bench to examine if jallikattu is a cultural right: It will see if states can claim protection under Article 29 (1).  
  7. Centre tells Supreme Court it will set up 12 special courts to speed up cases against lawmakers: They will be set up over the next year at a cost of Rs 7.8 crore, the Law Ministry said in its affidavit.  
  8. Five soldiers missing after snowfall triggers avalanches in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora, Kupwara: An Army porter died in Kupwara’s Naugam sector.  
  9. One dead, at least 21 injured in explosion at major gas facility in Austria: The police said a technical fault had caused the blast, and an official investigation has begun.  
  10. SC dismisses plea challenging Delhi High Court’s order refusing legal protection for ‘Vande Mataram’: The High Court had said that the love for the song does not need to be ‘enforced by the long arm of the law’.