'In an embarrassment to the government, Kashmiri Pandits who have braved conflict conditions in the Kashmir Valley questioned the figures given by Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy at a press conference in Bangaluru on Monday (September 23). There are a total of just 5,000 to 7,000 temples across Jammu and Kashmir, however, the government has reached a figure of 50,000 temples? How, questions the Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS)...'
'Hindutva groups in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu disrupted the filming of action-comedy Sulthan, starring Karthi and Rashmika Mandanna and directed by Bakkiyaraj Kannan, because they thought it was a biopic of Tipu Sultan. The film was being shot near an Archaeological Survey of India protected site on Tuesday night, when members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu Munnani arrived and staged protests. A police officer told the Indian Express that while there was no damage, the shooting schedule was disrupted. “They were in the final stage of shooting.
'...Noorjahan Mandal*, a 33-year-old domestic worker from Mumbai’s Reay Road area, sits listlessly among the crowd, clutching a huge pile of documents that she has meticulously assembled over the past nine years to help her prove her nationality. A matted ration card issued in early 2000 shows that she has been living in Mumbai for close to two decades. Her school-leaving certificate claims she has studied till Class Seven in a district-run school in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas. Her laminated Aadhaar card too declares her a Mumbai resident...
'Two Dalit children, aged 10 and 12, were beaten to death with sticks in a village in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district allegedly for defecating in the open on Wednesday, September 25.The victims, Roshani who is 12-years-old and her 10-year-old nephew Avinash, were beaten by two men from their village in Bhavkedi when they were defecating on a street in front of the panchayat building around 6.30 am, the police said quoting complaints filed by the deceased's parents.
'A Goa court on Thursday framed charges against BJP MLA Atanasio Monserratte for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl. The police last year filed a 250-page chargesheet in the North Goa district court after the investigation in the case was completed. North Goa district and sessions court judge Sherin Paul on Thursday framed charges against Monserratte. The trial in the case will begin on October 17.
'When I read in the newspapers that the Alwar trial court had acquitted the cow vigilantes accused of lynching Pehlu Khan – which, to me, had appeared an open and shut case from the newspapers – I was curious to find out on what grounds it had done so. Having worked in the legal field where it is commonly believed that a judge who has written a perfect judgment is yet to be born, I did not expect it to be perfect. But most certainly, I expected to see from a senior judicial officer a judgment on a standard format supported with sound legal principles.
'How India's most widely read newspaper published a highly misleading and inflammatory article... On September 19, readers of Dainik Jagran, the most widely read newspaper in the country, woke up to a disconcerting headline: “Having lost one daughter to love jihad, second one now in danger”. This appeared in the city section of the newspaper and concerned a series of events that took place in Sangam Vihar — a densely populated low-income neighbourhood in South Delhi. “The roots of love jihad are fast spreading in the tense lanes of Sangam Vihar,” read the opening line.
'India’s sagging economic growth has finally forced the government to relax its strict fiscal deficit targets, but even that may not guarantee a recovery. On September 20, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a reduction in the country’s effective corporate tax rate from around 35% to 25%. For companies that do not avail of any other incentive or commission, the effective tax rate would be just 22%. While India’s equity markets cheered the decision, the bond markets tanked on fears that the government may now have to borrow more to meet its expenses.
'Piyush Goyal, the Union minister for railways, recently asserted – incorrectly – that mathematics did not help Albert Einstein with his “discovery” of gravity. The minister did later correct his supposedly minor mistake in ascribing the discovery of gravitation to Einstein. The other part of his statement, about the importance or otherwise of mathematics, is even more problematic...'
'Oru Chaayakadakarante Mann ki Baat (Mind Matter of a Tea Vendor), an award-winning Malayalam documentary about the hardships of a tea seller after demonetisation, was supposed to be screened at the Kerala Club in New Delhi on Monday. The event was cancelled at the last minute, though, allegedly after Sangh parivar members threatened members of the club. According to The Telegraph, organisers were told not to screen the movie because it shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi “in bad light”. The screening was going to be followed by a discussion on the economic crisis...'
