'An officer of the Indian Administrative Service from Kerala, Kannan Gopinathan, has resigned from the prestigious service in order to be able to speak freely about the virtual ‘Emergency’ that he says has been imposed on the people of Jammu and Kashmir ever since the Centre announced it was ending the state’s special constitutional status. “This is not Yemen, this is not the 1970s, that you can deny basic rights to an entire people and nobody will say anything about it,” Gopinathan told The Wire.
'Union minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said those who “do not feel proud” of US President Donald Trump’s comment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the “father of India”, do not consider themselves Indians. “India is being respected in a way which was rare in the past,” Singh said on the sidelines of the launch of CPGRAMS reforms in the department of posts. “People who live abroad are proud today of being Indian. This is happening due to the personality and personal outreach of Prime Minister Modi,” said the minister of state for the Prime Minister’s Office...'
'The special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe the Swami Chinmayanand case on Wednesday (September 25) morning arrested the law student who had levelled allegations of sexual misconduct. The SIT, which was formed on the orders of Supreme Court, has allegedly arrested her in connection with the extortion case of Rs 5 crore from Swami Chinmayanand. The SIT has, as per the records accessed by NewsClick, booked the victim of sexual misconduct under sections 385, 506, 201 and also under one of the sections of the Scheduled Case/ Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
'Former Indian Administrative Service officer Kannan Gopinathan, who recently quit the service citing growing disillusionment particularly over the restrictions imposed on Jammu and Kashmir, has now raised serious questions about the electoral process having been compromised with the introduction of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. VVPATs were inducted into the process to provide an additional buffer against the manipulation of the electoral process by allowing physical tallying of votes.
'A question in the General Studies Paper I in the ongoing Civil Services Main examination has triggered a debate on social media. “What are the challenges to our cultural practices in the name of secularism,” the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) asked the candidates. The question was of 10 marks. While candidates are tweeting photos of the question paper, many are criticising the move calling it “fall of the great civil services”...'
'Three months after the Tabrez Ansari lynching case, which shook the conscience of the nation, Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Jharkhand once again witnessed a case of mob lynching on Sunday, September 22. A differently-abled tribal man was killed and two others were seriously injured when a mob allegedly thrashed them on suspicion of slaughtering a cow, in Khunti district of Jharkhand, police confirmed on Monday.
'In yet another step towards the Hindu right’s attempts to distance themselves from the published National Register of Citizens in Assam, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Sunday that no Hindu would have to think about leaving the country even if their names were excluded from the citizens’ register.
'Kolkata police on Monday prevented activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad from reaching the gates of Jadavpur University, spawning clashes four days after unrest first began since Union minister Babul Supriyo alleged he was heckled by college students in a nearly six-hour long standoff on campus on September 19... Angered, the ABVP activists pelted stones at police officers and tried to break barricades. Videos have been doing the rounds on social media which shows them charging at the barricades.
'In what may snowball into a controversy, the Income Tax department on Monday issued a notice to Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa’s wife Novel Singhal, regarding her income as an independent director of over a dozen companies... While details about the notice are yet to come, the matter may kickstart another debate on whether the Union government is intentionally using its agencies to go after those who have dissented against BJP leaders. Lavasa was one of the election commissioners who dissented on several decisions taken by the EC during the 2019 general elections.
'Tapan Misra, the former chief of the Space Applications Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) who was sidelined last year by incumbent chairman K Sivan, has penned a Facebook post tacitly criticising the organisation’s leadership and work culture after the Chandrayaan 2 surface mission failed earlier this month. The post is available to read in full below. One of Sivan’s first decisions as the new chairman of ISRO, in mid-2018, had been to demote Misra from directorship of the SAC to being the chairman’s advisor, a role that carries no executive authority.
