Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil ended his indefinite hunger strike on Sunday after holding talks with representatives of the Maharashtra government, who offered assurances on several long-pending demands of the Maratha community, ANI reported.

Jarange-Patil launched the hunger strike at 10 am on Saturday in Jalna district, and called it off about 15 hours later after receiving assurances from the Maharashtra government, PTI reported.

The protest ended in the presence of Maharashtra minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who heads the Maratha Reservation Cabinet Sub-Committee, and Bharatiya Janata Party MLC Prasad Lad.

Addressing supporters, Jarange-Patil said the government had agreed to speed up the process of issuing Kunbi caste certificates based on 58 lakh records that had already been identified, ANI reported.

He said these records would be displayed at gram panchayat offices, while the task of issuing caste certificates will be overseen by the divisional commissioner’s office, PTI reported.

Jarange-Patil also gave an ultimatum of one month to the government to withdraw police cases registered against Maratha protesters..

After the activist ended his fast, he was taken to a hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for further medical examination and treatment.

Quota demand

The Maratha community’s long-standing demand for reservations in education and government jobs resurfaced in 2023 with protests led by Jarange-Patil. The movement witnessed violence, suicides and the resignations of legislators.

His latest protest was his ninth hunger strike in the past three years.

In February 2024, the Maharashtra legislature passed a bill allowing for the creation of a 10% quota in education and government jobs for the Marathas. This would be in addition to the state’s 52% reservation quota, which includes a 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Section.

The introduction of the 10% quota is similar to the 16% reservation for Marathas under the Other Backward Classes category that was introduced in 2018 by the state government at the time comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party and the undivided Shiv Sena.

That decision was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2021, citing the 50% cap on a state’s total reservations that the court had ordered in 1992. The court said that there were no “exceptional circumstances” or “extraordinary situation” in Maharashtra for the state government to breach the limit on reservations.

Jarange-Patil has insisted that reservations for Marathas be given under the Other Backward Classes category, on the grounds that the separate quota exceeds the constitutional ceiling of 50% and would likely be struck down by the judiciary.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh has filed civil and criminal defamation proceedings against Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj in connection with his social media posts allegedly insinuating that Singh misused his influence in favour of officials at a school where a three-year-old girl was sexually assaulted, Bar and Bench reported.

Bharadwaj had allegedly made the claims in posts on X on May 16 and May 16.

The BJP leader asserted that the former AAP MLA’s allegations were “malicious, false and full of lies made with the intent to harm the reputation of the Plaintiff”, Bar and Bench reported.

The deputy chief minister filed the civil defamation suit, in which he has sought damages of Rs 5 crore, before the Delhi High Court. The case was listed on May 25 before Joint Registrar (Judicial) Gagandeep Jindal, who issued summons to Bharadwaj and listed the matter for further hearing on September 7.

Jindal directed Bharadwaj to file a written statement on the allegations within 30 days of receiving summons.

The criminal defamation case was heard by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Paras Dalal on May 22. The court listed the matter for the examination of Singh on June 9, and for the depositions of witnesses on June 11, according to Bar and Bench.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

India’s recent debate over dowry deaths echoes the same concerns that were supposed to have been addressed by stricter laws and criminal provisions passed in the early 1980s.

After 33-year-old Twisha Sharma was found dead in her home in Bhopal on May 12, six months into her marriage, a series of “dowry deaths” involving newly-wed brides have been reported from across India.

Sharma’s husband and in-laws claim she died by suicide. But her parents have alleged that she was murdered and that her in-laws and husband subjected her to domestic abuse and kept demanding dowry. Sharma’s husband, lawyer Samarth Singh, and mother-in-law Giribala Singh, a retired judge, were arrested soon after.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, cases of “bride burning” in North India consequent upon alleged dowry demands galvanised into the early women’s movement in India, highlighting violence in the marital home. In some of these incidents, newly-wed brides and young women were doused with kerosene and set on fire.

But now, like before, these concerns are overshadowed by a subject that remains undiscussed: the dominance of marriage in Indian society. Feminist scholar Mary E John describes this as “compulsory marriage”, a force that is almost universal.

It is the idea that only marriage can guarantee social meaning, stability, safety for women and it is the sole acceptable space for reproducing children. The latest available National Family Health Survey, 2019-’21, affirms this: “Marriage is nearly universal in India.” By the age of 45-49, only 1% of women and 3% of men in the country have never married.

The current discussion about dowry fails to examine this outsize role of marriage in social life. There is also surprise that Sharma, an ambitious career woman, could not navigate her way out of the marriage.

Rinku Ghosh notes in The Indian Express that Sharma’s anguished messages to her family about being trapped resonated with Indian women: “For all the spiel and advertisement of the modern marriage as one of companionship, equality and independence, the institution itself remains deeply conservative in its expectations of women.”

In Western and East Asian countries, economic development has afforded women better opportunities beyond family life and weakened the centrality of marriage. But this has not happened in India. Population and social scientists K Srinivasan and KS James describe marriage in the country as a “golden cage”.

Based on their data analysis, James and Srinivasan say that the institution of marriage is becoming irrelevant in Western countries, with people preferring to live together and have children outside marriage.

In the more conservative East Asian countries, women are choosing to remain single. In South Korea, for instance, some women are boycotting marriage and even men.

In India, the average age of marriage has risen but marriage is the norm, even among developed states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where women marry late. “Women in India, as of now and in the near future, seem to be safely trapped in a golden cage of marriage propped up by religion, caste and economic forces,” write James and Srinivasan.

Some answers to this puzzle can be found in the nature of India’s economic growth, which economists say has been “jobless”. In fact, unemployment increases with education levels. This means that India’s incredible gains of gender equality in higher education have not translated into an increase in women working in the formal economy.

Economist Ashwini Deshpande points out that part of the problem is the devaluation of women’s labour and how it is measured. “Women are getting educated at a faster rate,” she had said in an earlier interview. “But jobs that would be suitable, commensurate with their qualifications either don’t exist or they’re not able to access them.”

Compared to the stability and safety that marriage is seen to offer, the pathways of education, work and independence are a less secure investment for women. Parents and families seek out the safety net of marriage for their children, no matter the cost – even going into debt to pay for extravagant weddings.

But the unwillingness to question marriage has meant that when cases of marital discord or domestic violence and dowry deaths make the news, the old themes of women’s rights, legal overreach and despair over regressive and patriarchal practices circulate all over again.

Feminist scholars have long contended that dowry, and related concerns of domestic violence and cruelty in the marital home, is entangled with marriage and women’s inheritance rights in India. As anthropologist Srimati Basu writes, “Marriage is at the core of gender trouble.”

Part of this has to do with how Indian families and marriage unequally distribute social and economic resources. Property remains the entitlement of male relatives. Though women’s labour in raising children and caring for family members is essential, it is devalued, granting them precious little economic security.

Basu, who has extensively researched India’s marriage and inheritance laws, makes a striking observation while reflecting on her fieldwork and watching friends and colleagues get married. Wedding gifts, writes Basu, represented the only substantial expenditure for female children, the only culturally acceptable female entitlement to the fund of family wealth.

With marriage at the centre, Indian society is also suspicious or downright hostile to single people, especially unmarried women, refusing them houses to rent or questioning their sexual choices. Even if women, defying the compulsions of family, caste and religion, are able to secure jobs and some degree of independence, they are likely to struggle in leading a safe and dignified life on their own terms.

The Indian state is just as invested in marriage. State governments have been passing laws making it mandatory to register live-in relationships. Is marriage really a choice when it is positioned as the only viable way to build a life?

Here is a summary of last week’s top stories.

Proving citizenship. The Supreme Court upheld the legality of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission, saying that the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative” of free and fair polls. The Election Commission has constitutional powers to conduct the exercise, the bench said.

However, the court noted that the Election Commission’s inquiries for the purpose of including a person in the voter list do not mean that it can decide on whether the person is an Indian citizen.

It directed the poll panel to forward to the Union government within a week the names of the persons who had been deleted from Bihar’s electoral rolls on account of doubtful citizenship, so that their citizenship could be adjudicated upon.

Gaurav Mukherjee lists three reasons why West Bengal’s SIR exercise was unconstitutional.

Alleged unnatural demographic changes. The Union government set up a high-level committee on demographic change to study changes in population patterns allegedly “arising from illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons”. Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that “unnatural demographic change” caused by alleged “infiltration” and other reasons constitutes a big challenge for the country.

The committee will be headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar. The other members will be the Census commissioner, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, former Bureau of Police Research and Development chief Balaji Srivastava and economist Shamika Ravi.

The panel will analyse the “patterns of abnormal population changes at the level of religious and social communities” and will present solutions to address the problem, Shah said.

A change of guard. Congress leader Siddaramaiah resigned as the chief minister of Karnataka, saying that he was following the party leadership’s decision. “I am making way for a new chief minister,” he added.

Siddaramaiah said that he had submitted his resignation letter to the governor’s office and that it would be accepted in due course. He said that the Congress leadership had offered him a Rajya Sabha seat but that he declined it as he wants to remain in state politics.

Shivakumar is reportedly expected to become the next chief minister.

UCC in Assam. The Assam Assembly passed the Uniform Civil Code bill seeking to ban polygamy and make the registration of live-in relationships compulsory. The draft legislation was passed even as the Opposition demanded that it should be sent to a select committee for scrutiny.

It paves the way for Assam to become the third state, after Uttarakhand and Gujarat, to introduce such a code after independence.

Chief Minister Himanta Sarma said that the state’s tribal population would be kept outside the purview of the code.

Also on Scroll last week

• Why parents from Bihar’s poorest district send children to madrasas hundreds of miles away
• How false trafficking charges led to detention of hundreds of Bihar children going to madrasas
• Why INDIA bloc is welcoming the Cockroach Janta Party – but Congress is not
• Why workers in rural Jharkhand are wary of the new VB-G RAM G programme
• ‘Let me die at home’: Back from Bangladesh, an Assam woman struggles to recover from ‘pushback’
• Cockroach Janta Party is doomed to fade fast – unless it goes beyond meme politics
• Mango mania: Why India is promoting kesar to US consumers rather than Alphonsos
• Anand Teltumbde: Modi is asking Indians to make sacrifices for an economic crisis he oversaw
• ‘The Great Grand Superhero’ review: Aliens meet hilarious kids and a sporting granddad
• ‘Kattalan’ review: An unrelenting parade of slaughter

Follow the Scroll channel on WhatsApp for a curated selection of the news that matters throughout the day, and a round-up of major developments in India and around the world every evening. What you won’t get: spam.

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At least eight persons were rescued on Saturday after a three-storey building collapsed near Delhi’s Saket metro station, The Hindu reported.

The Delhi Fire Services received a call about the collapse at 7.45 pm, after which five fire vehicles were sent to the spot, the newspaper quoted unidentified officials as saying. Local residents had already rescued three persons by the time the emergency personnel arrived.

“The building, located at Saidulajab near Saket metro station, had ground plus three upper floors,” an unidentified Delhi Fire Services official was quoted as saying by The Hindu. “The third floor was under construction. It is not clear whether the building was privately owned or a government building.”

The structure fell on an adjacent tin shed canteen, where some children were eating dinner, and were trapped under the debris.

The building housed a coaching centre, cafes and offices, and construction work was underway on the third floor, PTI reported.

Rescue personnel were working to reach those still stuck underneath the debris, Dharamveer Singh, an official from the district magistrate’s office, told the news agency.

“Around six to seven people are still believed to be trapped under the collapsed building,” Singh said, according to PTI. “Their faces can be seen from outside, and NDRF [National Disaster Response Force] personnel are working to rescue them.”

Visuals from Sunday morning showed excavators removed debris from the site and rescue teams continuing operations.

VIDEO | Delhi: JCB machines remove rubble as rescue teams continue operations at the site of a three-storey commercial building collapse near Saket Metro Station. Latest visuals from the site.

(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/9cfudnuIpS

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 31, 2026

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Soon after the general elections of 2024, I met a young Congress legislator. He asked me for five pieces of advice for his leader, Rahul Gandhi. I said I had only one; that Priyanka Gandhi should not run for the Lok Sabha from Wayanad. I added that I was certain the advice would be disregarded.

There is little doubt that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra helped in enhancing his credibility, in portraying him as being a man of the people. Yet the Yatra’s gains were frittered away by the reassertion, after the elections, of the Congress as a family firm.

Priyanka Gandhi won the Wayanad seat (as safe for her as Gandhinagar is for Amit Shah), and spoke grandiosely about how she and her brother were uniting the country, her representing the South and he the North. Then, for a parliamentary debate on the Constitution’s 75th anniversary, the Congress chose Priyanka as the lead speaker, even though it was her own grandmother who sabotaged the Constitution by imposing the Emergency.

Meanwhile, the Congress winning 99 seats in the general elections encouraged the coterie of sycophants around Rahul Gandhi to proclaim that he was now a prime minister-in-waiting. These claims were amplified by intellectuals and journalists in Delhi, whose sterling anti-Hindutva credentials were clouded by their lack of judgment, and perhaps by the seductions of being rajgurus.

Premature elation

Two years later, we can see that this sense of elation was premature. The odd state unit of the Congress (such as Kerala) remains well-organised, and capable of winning the odd assembly election. In most other parts of India, the party has steadily lost ground. The Bharatiya Janata Party is now the natural party of governance in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and several other states where the Congress was once dominant. Rahul Gandhi has been incapable of arresting this slide. According to a recent report in The Print, since Rahul assumed a formal leadership role in the Congress around 2008, the number of Congress MLAs nationwide has dropped by almost half, from 1,204 to 676.

I have met and corresponded with Rahul Gandhi, and know him to be a decent human being. Even without this slight acquaintance, I would have much sympathy for him because of the personal tragedies he has suffered, and because at the age of 55 he remains an instrument of his mother’s will. One can have little doubt that he entered politics at Sonia Gandhi’s command, and that he leads the Congress at her behest too.

However, when the future of the Republic is at stake, one is forced to state one’s case directly and even brutally. Rahul Gandhi may be a good fellow; nonetheless, those who wish for a successful pushback against the hate-filled regime of the BJP should perhaps stop looking to him as their principal source of hope.

As a prospective prime ministerial challenger to Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi lacks discipline, gravitas and a curriculum vitae. Even when he takes up an important issue, such as the partisan conduct of the Election Commission of India, he rarely does so in a sustained manner. We see him giving the odd press conference on “vote chori”, followed by a trip to Europe or Latin America.

Indeed, in his 22 years in politics, it was only during the few months of the Bharat Jodo Yatra that Rahul Gandhi showed himself capable of the focused hard work that the leaders of the BJP put in all the time. Nowadays, his political interventions are mostly on X, attracting an array of immediate likes, yet destined to be forgotten within 24 hours.

Gestural gimmickry

Rahul’s lack of gravitas is also manifest in his gestural gimmickry, his naïve belief that jumping into a pond with fisherfolk or entering a kitchen with a chef will win his party votes. And his lack of a curriculum vitae is manifest in his never having held a real job. No one really knows what employment Rahul Gandhi had before he became an MP in 2004. In the ten years that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power, he refused to take a ministerial position. Why then should Indian voters trust him to be an effective prime minister of this large and diverse country, and in an ever more threatening geopolitical environment?

Finally, Rahul Gandhi has a marked inability to learn from past mistakes. The “chowkidar chor hai” campaign spectacularly backfired in 2019, yet he continues to personally attack the prime minister (calling him cowardly, compromised and so on), instead of focusing on governance failures or indeed on renewing his own party at the grassroots.

Many in the Congress acknowledge these criticisms, but, out of a lifetime of devotion to the Gandhis, think that his sister should be presented as the prime minister-in-waiting instead. Having belatedly realised that Rahul is not the new Nehru, they now hope that Priyanka will be the new Indira.

Admittedly, Priyanka is a far better orator than her brother in Hindi, a language understood by a plurality of Indians. However, she too carries the burden of being an entitled dynast. And she may be even less successful in getting voters out. On the one occasion Priyanka led an election campaign, for the 2022 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress’s vote share was 2.27%.

Dynastic entitlement

Incidentally, one (apparently unnoticed) lesson from the recent assembly elections is that all represented a negative comment on dynastic entitlement. The BJP was helped in Assam by Tarun Gogoi’s son leading the Congress campaign, and in West Bengal by Mamata Banerjee’s promotion of her nephew, Abhishek. In Tamil Nadu, Vijay was aided by Stalin’s elevation of his son, Udhayanidhi, in Kerala the Congress by Vijayan’s promotion of his son-in-law. Of course, there were many other factors at work, but this was certainly one of them.

These criticisms of the Congress’s First Family are far from being an endorsement of the current regime. In numerous articles written since the Modi government came to power in 2014, I have documented how it has eviscerated public institutions, cowed the press and the judiciary, undermined democratic processes, brutalised religious minorities, pursued an error-strewn foreign policy, damaged Indian science, promoted crony capitalism, and ravaged our forests, soils, water, and air.

There is no question that the principal architects of this undoing of the Republic since May 2014 are Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and their party, the BJP. Yet it is also now starkly evident that in their pursuit and consolidation of power, Modi and Shah have had, as their (witting or unwitting) accomplices, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and the sycophants who surround them.

I must not end on a despairing note. At the moment, the BJP under Modi looks impregnable. But so did Viktor Orbán and Fidesz in Hungary, and yet they were spectacularly unseated by the hitherto unknown Péter Magyar and his new Tisza Party. For two years prior to the election, Magyar travelled the country tirelessly, going to small towns and even villages to make his case against the authoritarian who had run and ruined Hungary. Magyar worked assiduously to build an Opposition alliance of all parties, Left, liberal, and Centre-Right. That he was a fresh face, untainted by corruption or dynastic privilege, and worked so hard were all inestimable assets.

As a Hungarian editor quoted in the Financial Times said about Magyar: “He is incredibly driven. Others have the tools, but he went in and did all the legwork.” This, alas, is not what anyone can say about Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi.

It is quite possible that the air of indestructibility that currently envelops Modi’s BJP will unravel in the years ahead. The public educational sector is in a mess; the NEET scandal is symptomatic here. The costs of the Union government’s economic mismanagement are now starkly apparent, manifest in the precipitous fall of the rupee, the flight of capital, and the failure to generate jobs. In the run-up to the 2029 general election, more Hindus may come to recognise that hatred of Muslims cannot really compensate for a higher cost of living, the lack of dignified employment, or the prospect of an uncertain future for their children.

Indeed, the growing popularity of political satire, as in the success of the memes of the Cockroach Janta Party, suggests that many young Indians have begun to see through the lies and propaganda of the ruling party. (The BJP knows this, hence the desperate attempt to shut down the CJP’s avenues for expression.) As and when this disenchantment deepens, who will shape it into an effective political challenge? Which leader, or leaders, can inspire voters nationwide by taking apart the failures of the current government and presenting a constructive programme for economic and social renewal? Based on their past record it seems altogether unlikely that this can be either or both of the Gandhi siblings.

This article was first published in The Telegraph.

Ramachandra Guha’s latest book, Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism, is now in stores. His email address is ramachandraguha@yahoo.in.

Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee was attacked during a visit to Sonarpur in West Bengal on Saturday, where he had gone to meet the family of a party worker allegedly killed in post-poll violence.

A mob threw eggs and stones at Abhishek Banerjee and shouted slogans of “chor, chor” or “thief, thief”, the Hindustan Times reported. Videos shared on social media showed the TMC leader – wearing a helmet – being assaulted.

The TMC alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party workers were behind the attack.

In a social media post, former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “Rulers became killers – shame on you BJP”.

RULERS BECAME KILLERS- shame on you BJP https://t.co/DHNsnDAc9a

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 30, 2026

Abhishek Banerjee, who had gone to Sonarpur to meet the family of Sanju Karmakar, a TMC worker allegedly killed in post-poll clashes, also alleged that the attackers wanted to kill him.

“Let them kill me,” the Hindustan Times quoted Abhishek Banerjee as saying. “Let my dead body be recovered from here. But I won’t quit and abandon Karmakar’s parents.”

After spending more than 90 minutes at Karmakar’s residence, Abhishek Banerjee was escorted out by personnel from the central forces and officers from the Sonarpur police station, the Telegraph reported.

Abhishek Banerjee also alleged that there were not enough police personnel at the site. “I would draw Calcutta High Court and the governor’s attention on the absence of police personnel,” the Hindustan Times quoted him as saying. “I would move the High Court.”

State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said that the local police should take action in the matter.

“The BJP does not engage in such kind of politics,” The Telegraph quoted Bhattacharya as saying. “Police should take action…People of Bengal have voted for a change against this politics of violence.”

The BJP won the West Bengal elections on May 4, ending the TMC’s 15-year tenure in the state.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the “deliberate lack of adequate police protection for a prominent Opposition leader speaks volumes about the BJP’s politics of vendetta and persecution”, the newspaper reported.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the absence of police arrangements pointed to a “major conspiracy” under the “anarchic BJP government in Bengal”, The Telegraph reported.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority has directed Aaj Tak to edit or suitably modify portions of a programme hosted by journalist Sudhir Chaudhary that discussed claims that the Taj Mahal was once a Hindu temple, Bar and Bench reported on Saturday.

The authority noted that the broadcast did not meet standards of neutrality and impartiality under its code of conduct.

In an order issued on Thursday, the authority’s Chairperson Justice AK Sikri observed that “while the broadcaster had relied on the Archaeological Survey of India’s report when covering claims about the Qutub Minar, it omitted similar official records when reporting on the Taj Mahal”, Bar and Bench reported.

The order was passed on an application that had challenged a decision of the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority from December that had found no breach of its code of conduct in the programme.

The petition alleged that the episode of “Black and White” aired on November 29, 2024 promoted a one-sided narrative about the destruction of Hindu temples by Muslim rulers.

It also argued that the broadcast amplified the widely discredited claim that the Taj Mahal was originally a Hindu temple despite the Archaeological Survey of India having rejected such assertions, Bar and Bench reported.

TV Today Network Limited, which owns Aaj Tak, defended the broadcast, describing it as a documentary-style presentation that compiled claims from books, reports and third party sources.

In its order from December 23, the authority had noted that the broadcast was framed as a historical account and that the anchor had relied on published material, including Archaeological Survey of India reports to support the narrative presented.

However, upon review, the authority drew a distinction between presenting historical claims and doing so in a manner consistent with standards of neutrality and accuracy.

It noted that the broadcaster had cited official records in some segments but omitted similar records while discussing the Taj Mahal.

The authority limited its intervention to the Taj Mahal segment and did not revisit other allegations raised in the complaint, including claims relating to the programme’s communal tone, the omission of legal context such as 1991 Places of Worship Special Provisions Act, among others.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar was elected leader of the legislature party on Saturday and will be the state’s next chief minister.

Outgoing chief minister Siddaramaiah proposed Shivakumar’s name as the new leader of the legislature party at a meeting held at the Vidhan Soudha, ANI quoted Congress leader KC Venugopal as saying.

Shivakumar is expected to be sworn in as chief minister on June 3 at the Glass House of Lok Bhavan in Bengaluru, PTI reported.

#WATCH | Bengaluru, Karnataka: Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal says, "Congress high command suggested the name of DK Shivakumar as the leader of Congress Legislative Party. Siddaramaiah ji proposed the name of DK Shivakumar as the new leader of the… pic.twitter.com/MPJtk4JZxo

— ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2026

Shivakumar served as deputy chief minister in the Siddaramaiah government.

Siddaramaiah resigned as chief minister on Thursday. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot accepted his resignation the following day and dissolved the Council of Ministers.

Siddaramaiah is the longest-serving chief minister of Karnataka with a tenure of more than eight years across two terms. The 78-year-old served as the chief minister between 2013 and 2018. His most recent term had begun in May 2023.

Speculation about a leadership change in Karnataka had resurfaced after the Congress government completed half of its five-year term in November.

After the Congress defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Assembly elections in May 2023, reports claimed there had been a competition between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar for the chief minister’s post.

At the time, some reports claimed that a compromise had been reached based on a “rotational chief minister formula”, under which Shivakumar would take over the post after two and a half years.

The Congress never confirmed that there had been such an agreement. In July, Siddaramaiah said that he would remain in office for the full five-year term.

In April, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said there would be no change in Karnataka “for now”.

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were in Delhi on Tuesday for meetings with the Congress’ central leadership.

On Thursday, Siddaramaiah said that he was following the Congress leadership’s decision asking him to step down. “I am making way for a new chief minister,” he said.

Siddaramaiah also said that the Congress leadership had offered him a Rajya Sabha seat but he “politely told them no, saying I want to remain in state politics”.

“I am not interested in national politics,” he had told reporters. “I have two more years as an MLA, I will serve my people. I will continue in active politics.”

The next Assembly elections in Karnataka are expected to be held in May 2028.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

After technical disruptions delayed the conduct of the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate on Saturday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “completely ruining the entire education system”.

Earlier in the day, the National Testing Agency, which conducts the exam for admissions into undergraduate programmes in central universities, said that a technical glitch had been reported at some centres during the CUET-UG 2026.

In a post on social media, the agency attributed the disruption to a technical issue at Tata Consultancy Services, which manages the exam infrastructure. “The issue has since been resolved, and the exam is being conducted with full compensatory time so that no candidate is disadvantaged,” it said.

The National Testing Agency added that candidates who completed their biometric registration and were present at the examination centres on Saturday but could not finish their examination due to the technical glitch will get an opportunity to retake the examination. The agency said it would provide the details of the re-examination later.

The incident came amid allegations of irregularities in the 2026 undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical college seats, the Class 12 exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Staff Selection Commission test for government posts.

Gandhi alleged that no exam had been conducted with honesty.

“NEET. CBSE. SSC. And today CUET. Four exams. One crore children,” the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said. “The generation whose future you [Modi] are destroying – that same generation will hold you accountable.”

NEET। CBSE। SSC। और आज CUET।

चार परीक्षाएँ। एक करोड़ बच्चे। एक भी ईमानदारी से नहीं हो पाई।

दावे "विश्वगुरु" के, मगर देश में एक परीक्षा नहीं करवा सकते - मोदी जी ने पूरी शिक्षा व्यवस्था तबाह कर दी है।

जिस पीढ़ी का भविष्य आप बर्बाद कर रहे हैं - वही पीढ़ी आपका हिसाब करेगी।

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 30, 2026

The Aam Aadmi Party also shared a video of students purportedly standing outside the gate of an exam centre for the CUET-UG 2026.

“Today, millions of students were forced to stand for hours in the scorching sun during the CUET exam because the server itself went down,” it said in a post. “This is the state of affairs under Modi rule – they can’t even conduct a single paper properly…”

The AAP added: “The Modi government can’t manage the education system, and after every failure, it starts a new drama.”

आज CUET परीक्षा में लाखों छात्र घंटों धूप में खड़े रहने को मजबूर रहे क्योंकि सर्वर ही डाउन हो गया।

ये तो व्यवस्था है मोदी राज में, एक पेपर तक ठीक से नहीं करवा सकते, कभी सर्वर डाउन, कभी पेपर लीक और फिर नौटंकी करते हैं NEET का पेपर एयरफोर्स के जहाज में लाएंगे।

मोदी सरकार शिक्षा… pic.twitter.com/ngBflYjcKn

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) May 30, 2026

Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi also criticised Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and shared a notice put up outside one of the exam centres on the delay.

“First NEET, then CBSE, now CUET…,” the former Delhi Chief Minister said. “Today CUET has been delayed due to a ‘technical issue’. Lakhs of students were to take the exam in all parts of India today and after waiting for hours, such notices have been put up outside all centres. Remarkable incompetence Dharmendra Pradhan.”

First NEET, then CBSE, now CUET…

Today CUET has been delayed due to a ‘technical issue’. Lakhs of students were to take the exam in all parts of India today and after waiting for hours, such notices have been put up outside all centres.

Remarkable incompetence @dpradhanbjp! pic.twitter.com/zVTtdmR6zb

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) May 30, 2026

Irregularities in NEET, CBSE and SSC

On May 12, the National Testing Agency, which conducts NEET-UG for admission to undergraduate medical courses in India, cancelled the test for this year following allegations of a paper leak.

More than 22 lakh candidates had appeared for the test that was conducted on May 3.

The test had to be cancelled after the Rajasthan Special Operations Group began investigating allegations that a “guess paper” circulated before the examination contained questions closely matching the actual paper.

The “guess paper” contained around 410 questions, of which about 120 matched the questions asked in the chemistry section, according to the Rajasthan Police. The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a first information report in the matter based on a complaint by the Union education ministry.

On May 15, the National Testing Agency said that the re-exam for the 2026 NEET-UG would be held on June 21. On the same day, the Union education minister said that the exam would be computer-based from next year.

A day later, the Union education ministry said that the CBI had arrested a Pune-based botany teacher in connection with the alleged paper leak. Nine persons have been arrested in the case so far.

A batch of petitions is also being heard in the Supreme Court on the alleged paper leak.

Separately, the CBSE’s On-Screen Marking evaluation process for evaluating Class 12 answer sheets had come under criticism in the past two weeks following complaints about alleged glitches and irregularities during the evaluation process.

Many students had alleged that the scanned copies of answer sheets uploaded by the CBSE did not match their handwriting, raising concerns about possible answer sheet mismatches, the Hindustan Times reported.

Students seeking re-evaluation also alleged that they faced portal failures, delays in payment confirmation and, in some cases, were asked to pay excess fees because of technical glitches.

On Thursday, Pradhan said that the Union government acknowledged discrepancies in the OSM system and accepted responsibility for them. The minister added that strict action would be taken against anyone found to be “intentionally responsible” for irregularities in the evaluation process.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Staff Selection Commission (Central Region) on May 26 cancelled the 2026 Constable (General Duty) Examination at several centres in the state amid protests by candidates over alleged “technical disruptions”, The Indian Express reported.

The Staff Selection Commission on social media said that the technical disruptions were reported at one centre each in Kanpur, Prayagraj, Lucknow and Muzaffarpur during the afternoon shift on May 25.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Twenty-two police officers and Maharashtra Excise Department personnel have been suspended for failing to curb the alleged illegal supply of spurious liquor that killed 14 persons, PTI reported on Saturday.

So far, eight persons have been arrested in connection with the deaths that took place across Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune over the past two days. One of the persons arrested was identified as Yogesh Wankhede, a resident who allegedly brewed and supplied the alcohol.

Of the 14 persons killed, 10 died in the Phugewadi area of Pimpri Chinchwad, while four others in Pandhare Mala in Pune’s Hadapsar. Five men are also undergoing treatment at a hospital in Pimpri Chinchwad, PTI reported.

Following the incident, an order issued by the Pune Police Commissionerate said that Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Mogale at the Hadapsar police station, Assistant Police Inspector Hasina Sikalgar and Sub-Inspector Hasan Mulani have been suspended in the case.

Six personnel from the Pimpri Chinchwad Police, including a senior inspector, a sub-inspector and four constables, have also been suspended, PTI quoted an unidentified officer as saying.

Superintendent Atul Kanade told the news agency that the state excise department also placed 13 personnel under suspension.

On Friday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the police and the state excise department were investigating the “entire ecosystem” behind the incident.

He said that the substance involved in the case appeared to be “something like methanol” but added that the police would provide more details after the investigation is completed.

Methanol is a toxic industrial alcohol that can cause illness, blindness or death if consumed.

Several victims had reported similar symptoms before their deaths, including dizziness, uneasiness, frothing at the mouth, breathing difficulties and a sudden drop in heart rate.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Rajasthan government to pay Rs 11 lakh in compensation to a convict who remained in prison for 24 days despite an order issued by the High Court directing his release on parole, Bar and Bench reported.

The state cannot continue depriving a person of liberty merely because officials are considering whether they should challenge a judicial order granting parole or not, a bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and AG Masih said.

“The liberty of an individual is not a trivial matter,” the legal news portal quoted the judges as saying.

It also noted that a judicial order directing the release of a person should be complied with unless it is stayed by a superior court, adding that their rights do not diminish merely because they are serving a sentence.

While awarding the convict Rs 11 lakh as compensation for the violation of his personal liberty, the Supreme Court also said that his continued incarceration amounted to illegal detention and entitled him to compensation.

The case

The case pertained to a man named Daudayal who had been convicted by a trial court in 1988 and sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment in connection with a crime in 1967 in Rajasthan, Bar and Bench reported.

He had been accused of unlawful assembly, house trespass and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. In 2021, the Rajasthan High Court upheld his conviction and sentence, after which he was taken into custody to serve the sentence.

However, Daudayal applied for permanent parole in December 2023 while serving his sentence, Live Law reported. This request was rejected by the prison authorities in January 2024.

He subsequently moved the High Court, which on November 5, 2024, directed his release on parole after furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties of Rs 50,000 each.

But Daudayal was not released despite fulfilling the conditions. He then approached a division bench of the High Court, which ordered his immediate release on December 6, 2024, the legal news portal reported.

Soon after, Daudayal moved the Supreme Court seeking compensation for the time he was forced to remain in jail despite a parole order in his favour, Bar and Bench reported.

He submitted that there was no legal basis for keeping him in prison for 24 days after his sureties were verified, contending that the continued detention violated his right to personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution and entitled him to compensation.

On the other hand, the state government contended that the High Court order was contrary to the 1958 Rajasthan Prisoners Release on Parole Rules. The delay in releasing Daudayal occurred because the authorities were considering whether to challenge the order, it added.

Edited by Leah Thomas.

The price of Compressed Natural Gas in Mumbai and its adjoining areas was increased by Rs 2 per kg by Mahanagar Gas Limited, Moneycontrol reported on Saturday.

This marks the second hike in two weeks amid the war in West Asia.

The gas now costs Rs 86 per kg in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and the other areas of the metropolitan region. The hike took effect from midnight on Saturday, The Indian Express reported.

Mahanagar Gas Limited, which distributes Compressed Natural Gas in parts of Maharashtra, had last raised prices by Rs 2 per kg on May 14.

The increase in the rates of Compressed Natural Gas came four days after on Monday, the prices of petrol and diesel were also increased for the fourth time in two weeks. The rates went up by an average of Rs 2.8 per litre across the country.

With this, the price of petrol in Mumbai reached Rs 111.2 per litre and diesel went up to Rs 97.8 per litre.

This was the fourth increase in the prices of retail fuel within two weeks. The prices of petrol and diesel have risen by nearly Rs 7.5 per litre since May 15 when the first round of revision took place.

The increase in prices have come following weeks of elevated crude oil and gas prices because of the supply disruption caused by the conflict.

The benchmark Brent crude was trading at about $91.1 a barrel on Friday on hopes of a possible agreement between the United States and Iran.

Centre asks fuel companies to maintain 30-day LPG reserves

On Friday, the Union government said that it had directed state-run fuel retailers to significantly enhance liquefied petroleum gas storage infrastructure and maintain reserves sufficient to meet at least 30 days of demand amid the supply disruption.

“We are working on the strategic reserves,” Sujata Sharma, joint secretary in the petroleum ministry, said. “Oil marketing companies have been asked to work out [a plan] to have LPG reserves for a minimum of 30 days with them, and they are working on it.”

India imports 88% of its crude oil needs and about half of its natural gas requirement. This mostly comes through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blocked due to the conflict in West Asia.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Delhi High Court on Friday directed a social media account Ranting Gola to delete a post about advocate and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gaurav Bhatia over his appearance on a television news show, which was widely shared online, Live Law reported.

The matter is related to a defamation suit filed by Bhatia.

In September, the BJP leader had appeared on a News18 programme hosted by journalist Amish Devgan, during which a camera shot showed him wearing a kurta without pyjamas or pants. The video clip was widely shared on social media. Bhatia later said he had been wearing shorts.

On Friday, the bench told the social media user Shamita Yadav, whose account is named Ranting Gola, to takedown the post immediately, saying that it would cause prejudice to Bhatia if it remained on the social media platform X.

Bhatia had alleged that the account had uploaded a post on December 19 that allegedly showed wilful disobedience of an interim order passed in his defamation suit on September 25, according to the legal news outlet.

The counsel for Yadav told the court that her client was a content creator and was not affiliated with any political party. “My Twitter handle says that I am a comedian,” The Wire quoted the lawyer as saying, contending that the post was satirical and within the protection of free expression.

The counsel also contended that the post referred to on Friday were not covered by the court’s injunction order in September, Bar and Bench reported.

However, the bench expressed reservations, the legal news outlet reported.

On September 25, the High Court had said that it will issue directions for removing the allegedly defamatory posts and videos on social media about Bhatia’s appearance on the television show.

A bench of Justice Amit Bansal had said at the time that if the posts are not removed by the users who uploaded them, intermediary platforms such as Google and X that host the content would be directed to take them down.

The counsel for Bhatia had argued at the time that the content had been “taken in the privacy” of Bhatia’s home and should not have been shared without his consent.

Bhatia had also argued that he had been disturbed by posts referencing “male private parts” and the use of offensive words by the Samajwadi Party’s social media unit. “Such words are not to be used in public discourse,” his counsel had said.

The posts could not be classified as free speech and amounted to defamation, Bhatia had argued.

The defamation suit filed by Bhatia named 22 defendants, including SP’s social media unit, Congress leader Ragini Nayak, Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bhardwaj, journalist Abhisar Sharma, news outlets such as Newslaundry and News18, and content creators including Ranting Gola, Rofl Gandhi.

Besides, Google and X were named as intermediary platforms hosting the content.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday denied anticipatory bail to commentator Madhu Kishwar in a case against her for making allegedly misleading claims on social media about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bar and Bench reported.

Kishwar had on April 18 shared on her account on social media platform X, or allegedly retweeted, a video purportedly showing Modi. The claim had been debunked and the person seen in the video was not Modi, according to the prosecution. The post was later deleted.

The Chandigarh Police had filed a first information report against her.

Kishwar has been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to defamation, promoting enmity between groups on grounds, doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, cheating, forgery, forging a document or electronic record and using it as genuine, and making statements conducing to public mischief, Live Law reported.

She has also been booked under provisions of the Information Technology Act.

On Friday, Kishwar said that her application for anticipatory bail had been rejected on what she described as “flimsy grounds”. The FIR was politically motivated and filed in the Union Territory, “which is directly under Union Home Minister Amit Shah”, she alleged.

This had made it “very tough to find a lawyer” to argue her case, she claimed.

The case

On Friday, Justice Aman Chaudhary said that Kishwar had not cooperated with the investigating agency as she had failed to appear before the police despite repeated notices, Bar and Bench reported.

The court observed that Kishwar was a prominent social media personality and a scholar who could not be presumed to be unaware of the impact of an allegedly misleading post.

The bench noted that while the video had been uploaded on other social media platforms, it was only after Kishwar shared it with her comments that it garnered 1.7 lakh views, the legal news outlet reported.

“Speculations were made of it resembling the holder of a constitutional post, which was confirmed when she further retweeted in that regard...” the court was quoted as having added.

The court also took note of other allegedly objectionable posts by Kishwar, saying that there was an obvious distinction between constructive criticism and posting or trolling to malign someone, cause aspersions and insinuation, Bar and Bench reported.

The “magnitude of the repercussions can be far from that can be fathomed” when such posts are made by someone like the petitioner who has a large following on social media, the court was quoted as saying.

“Such posts can create disharmony, encourage separatist sentiments and put the unity and integrity at peril,” it added.

The court said that Kishwar cannot be granted anticipatory bail as the “modus operandi” in the matter was yet to be found.

The counsel representing Kishwar argued that there had been no ill intent behind her post. They also contended that Kishwar was being wrongly implicated in the matter as that she had merely retweeted the video.

The police argued that Kishwar had not merely retweeted, but had instead downloaded the video shared by another person on another social media platform and then uploaded it on her account. It argued that Kishwar had not only helped in spreading misinformation but also allegedly defamed the image of the head of the government.

Modi government determined to ‘punish me’, claims Kishwar

On Friday, Kishwar said that the status report filed by the prosecution in the matter “is bizarre beyond belief”, adding that her bail application had been rejected “despite legally sound facts presented...to prove that the FIR failed to establish any crime”.

“...I had been forewarned by lawyers in Chandigarh that the Modi govt was determined to ‘teach me a lesson’ and punish me in the severest possible manner to make an example of me for dissenters and critics of the Modi regime,” Kishwar alleged in a social media post.

“Therefore, today’s order denying me protection against political vendetta did not come as a surprise,” she said.

Kishwar said that she will file an appeal before the Supreme Court.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

If you are a working-class Muslim in India today and speak Bengali, you are likely to be living in mortal fear of the state stripping you of your citizenship overnight, throwing you into a detention centre or pushing you across the international border to neighbouring Bangladesh.

And this, when India is home to around 200 million Muslims; and when Bengali is the most widely spoken language in India after Hindi.

Anwar Ali, a Bengali migrant worker in Mumbai laments that “ if you speak Bengali, wear a lungi, or cook fish and meat, you’re harassed… Now, speaking Bengali makes you look like a criminal”. His contractor has even advised him over the phone: “Speaking Bengali is dangerous. Learn Hindi, stop wearing lungis.” Lungis are chequered pieces of cloth that Muslim Bengali men often wear below their waists. Ali can change his attire. However, he asks piercingly, “How can I change my mother tongue?”

In May 2025, Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry wrote to the Indian government demanding that it follows established repatriation mechanisms. It describes “push-ins” – what we describe in India as “pushbacks” – to be “unacceptable”. It affirmed that Bangladesh would “only accept individuals confirmed as Bangladeshi citizens and repatriated through proper channels.”

Supreme Court hears the case of alleged indian nationals deported to Bangladesh (Union vs Bhodu Shekh)

SG Mehta: We have instructions. The government will bring them back. Ascertain their status and take steps as needed. Please record this is in peculiar facts of the case and… pic.twitter.com/BpXTCABqHk

— Bar and Bench (@barandbench) May 22, 2026

Again, more recently, the Bangladesh army has warned against what it describes as India's “push-in’ deportation practices. Brigadier General Md Nazim-ud-Daula, Director of the Military Operations Directorate for the Bangladesh Army, described the forced return of undocumented persons by Indian authorities as “unacceptable,” and said the army was prepared to intervene if instructed by the government.

He said that all repatriations should take place “through proper channels”. “Bangladesh does not engage in ‘push-ins’ like India but believes in resolving issues through diplomacy,” he declared. This has been formally raised by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has formally raised the matter with India, according to the Bangladesh general.

The policy of “pushback” is an extra-judicial process of forcefully pushing people the state alleges to be illegal immigrants across international borders at gunpoint. It is a staggering sleight of hand targeting primarily people of Muslim identity. To strip a person of citizenship rights is to deny them access even to most fundamental rights guaranteed to citizens in the Constitution. Without these rights, a person cannot vote, cannot access welfare schemes like subsidised rations, housing and pensions. A person is effectively rendered “stateless”. And a destiny of incarceration in detention centres and forceful “pushbacks” by armed soldiers into a land with which the person has no links looms large.

Until the Bharatiya Janata Party victory in the midsummer election in West Bengal, “push-backs” were conducted across the borders with Bangladesh in Assam and Tripura, both with BJP governments. Of the 4,096-km border of India by Bangladesh, 2,217 km, or more than half of the full length fell in West Bengal, which was not available so far for “push-back” operations. But now with the triumphalist installation of a BJP government in West Bengal, most stretches of the border of India with Bangladesh now resound with threats of “push-backs”.

It is baleful that alleged “infiltration” from Bangladesh was central to the BJP election campaign. It was a theme that Union Home Minister Amit Shah continuously returned to, claiming shrilly that “infiltrators” were stealing the jobs, rations and security of the Bengali people. And tellingly, one of the first announcements by West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari after the elections was to declare that the time had come to deport “infiltrators”.

He speaks of his government’s touch approach of “detect, delete, deport”. District magistrates have been asked to establish adequate infrastructure for “holding centres” for illegal immigrants and foreigners. These are intended, state officials explain, for those illegal immigrants who do not qualify for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 – namely only Muslims

The government also announced that those who had been struck off electoral rolls because they could not produce documents that satisfied the election commission would be denied access even to subsidised rations.

Five generations of her family have lived in a West Bengal village, land records show

Yet pregnant Sunali Khatun has been pushed into Bangladesh by Indian authorities

We met her mother and daughter - picture by @raghavKakkar30, report by @AnantGuptaAG https://t.co/9zisUXgkB8

— Supriya Sharma (@sharmasupriya) September 4, 2025

Legalising ‘pushbacks’

You might say that any sovereign nation operates well within international law by expelling illegal aliens residing in its territory. Indeed if we accept the framework of the modern nation-state there can be little objection if people are established to be foreigners who are illegally living in the country and then they are legally deported to the nation to which they belong, always following due process and in consultation with the nation to which the illegal immigrant belongs.

In the context of Myanmar, because the Rohingya face grave threats to their life and liberty if handed over to the Myanmar military government, the international principle on non-refoulement restrains any forceful return of persons even if they are illegally residing in India.

What would a lawful process of deportation from India to Bangladesh entail? It would require the Government of India to give details to the embassy or high commission of the country to which Indian authorities claim that the undocumented person belongs. Only if the embassy or high commission verifies the nationality of the person, the person is legally deported to her or his home nation.

However, “pushbacks” in India do none of this. These are done without judicial due process and without engaging in any way the country into which a person is pushed.

Let us contrast this with the large numbers of undocumented “illegal” immigrants sent to India by the Trump administration in the United States of America in his second term. The Trump administration does not simply fly these people into India. It acts while communicating the details of these persons to the Indian embassy. What we must understand is that the people who the American authorities are sending back to India (with or without shackles) are indisputably Indian citizens. There is no contestation by both governments and by the person that the undocumented person is Indian.

USBP and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport. This mission underscores our commitment to enforcing immigration laws and ensuring swift removals.

If you cross illegally, you will be removed. pic.twitter.com/WW4OWYzWOf

— U.S. Border Patrol Chief (@USBPChief) February 5, 2025

This is entirely different from the processes of “pushback” under way in India. Here it is only the Indian authorities, often without due process, who allege that a person is a Bangladeshi citizen. This is firstly contested by the person who is being “pushed back”. And the Bangladesh government is not informed nor consulted, nor is it requested to verify that the person is in fact a Bangladeshi citizen.

For persons who India claims are Bangladeshis illegally residing in India, lawful processes of deportation are rarely resorted to. Instead, the overwhelming majority of persons who have been forcefully “pushed” across the border are persons whom the Indian state dubs to be “illegal”, most often by flawed and truncated processes.

The details of these persons are not communicated to the Bangladesh High Commission, nor are the Bangladeshi authorities given the opportunity to confirm that these persons resident in India are actually Bangladeshi citizens. This brazenly contravenes international law, and indeed India’s constitutional guarantees of the fundamental right to life, liberty and due process that extend also to non-citizens.

A law passed by Parliament in 2025 attempts to give a legal veneer to the extra-judicial practice of “pushback” or forced expulsion of persons judged by the state to be aliens. This is the Immigration and Foreigners Act of 2025, which has received presidential assent and is therefore the law of the land. According to this law, if the state suspects a person to be a foreigner who is living in India illegally, it will first detain the person in a “holding centre” (codeword for a detention centre). Local police and administrative officials will conduct a summary enquiry within 30 days of this detention. If the person is unable to prove her Indian nationality within this time, the person can be removed forcefully from the country.

Scroll rightly describes this as a “procedurally flawed, opaque and onerous legal process that reflects the fraught terrain of Indian citizenship and belonging”. Since the law makes no mention of consulting with the authorities of the nation to which the person is alleged to belong, this in effect legalises the practice of pushback.

First, the starting point for the operation of the law is suspicion on the part of the police or the law enforcement agencies that a person is a Bangladeshi national who has crossed into India illegally. The basis for such suspicion is not specified in the law. It therefore leaves the door wide open for the exercise of this power by local state officials or senior government functionaries based on prejudices of class, religion, language and ethnicity. Impoverished working class Bengali-speaking Muslims are unsurprisingly most imperilled by this law.

Second, this law reverses the burden of proof. This means that the state is not required to prove that the person that it has identified to be “suspicious” is in fact an illegal alien. Instead all that is required for the executive to adjudge a person to be an illegal immigrant – and, armed with this conclusion, to push her across the international border – is simply for the person to be unable in the prescribed time of 30 days to muster the necessary documents to prove her citizenship.

Given the reality of the lower-end bureaucracy dealing with unlettered, impoverished and powerless persons, it is highly unlikely that the “suspected” illegal resident would be able to gather in this small window the necessary documentation to establish that they are Indian citizens.

Third, until now there was at least some semblance of a judicial process before the executive could conclude that a person was an illegal alien. The enquiry now under the 2025 law is entirely conducted by state officials. No appeal mechanism has been specified in the law, meaning that a summary and opaque executive decision becomes final and binding.

The “pushback” policy has become an alternative process now dressed up as law, with “little oversight and safeguards, which risks creating stateless individuals while placing the burden on marginalised groups to prove Indian citizenship”.

We have seen comments of this nature being made in the last several days. These comments must be seen in the context of the core issue of the repatriation of illegal Bangladeshis from India. This obviously requires cooperation from Bangladesh.

Over 2,860 cases of nationality… pic.twitter.com/f0B2NYpWWW

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) May 7, 2026

Cruelty of pushbacks

Even before the 2025 law that gave “pushbacks” a faux legal veneer, these had become commonplace. Muslim migrants, usually Bengali speaking, were rounded up from around the country, thrown into “holding centres”; they were sometimes flown to BJP-ruled states of Tripura and Assam and pushed across the international border to Bangladesh.

However, the implementation of the 2025 laws, the BJP victories in West Bengal and Assam, and the ideological biases of the state establishment have made life even more perilous for people of the targeted identities. If you are Muslim, Bengali and working-class and live or work in BJP-ruled states, there is a high chance that the system would treat you as a suspected infiltrator.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha informed the state assembly in 2025 that 3,518 illegal immigrants were detained in the state over the past three years, of whom 2,739 were pushed back to “their” countries. Saha said that in 2022, 982 illegal entrants were caught, followed by 1,072 in 2023, 1,007 in 2024, and 412 till August 2025. Among them were Bangladeshis, Rohingyas, and a few nationals from Nigeria and France. Push-back operations saw 911 sent back in 2022, 657 in 2023, 690 in 2024, and 481 till August 2025.

The signs are ominous. The language is itself telling. Undocumented Hindus, Tibetans and Sri Lankan Tamils are routinely described as “refugees”. Muslims who are unable to produce documents of citizenship and the Rohingya are called “infiltrators”, indicating not simply that they are undocumented but that they are security threats.

Even the prime minister alludes to the dangers that they pose – in his 2025 Independence Day address – to the nation from the Red Fort. He announces a high-powered demography mission to deal with the threat. “No country can hand itself over to infiltrators”, he thunders, “how then can we allow India to do so?”

40 Rohingya refugees were allegedly blindfolded, beaten, and forced onto an Indian Navy vessel—then thrown into the sea.https://t.co/jDz0yx4ZuN

They swam back to Myanmar, the country they had fled to escape genocide.

Vineet Bhalla reports pic.twitter.com/d1y1PrmthO

— Scroll.in (@scroll_in) May 17, 2025

Detention centres are now called “holding centres”. Many have come up in major migration hubs like Assam, New Delhi, Gujarat, Goa, Tamil Nadu and most recently in Mumbai. People detained in these speak of them as frightening places of detention without even the protections of ordinary jails, even though those detained in them are not criminals. I could not access official data on the numbers of detention centres for “illegal immigrants” across India.

Parichay, a legal aid clinic in the Global Jindal University, reports that RTI applications for these details to the Union home ministry receive the response that this information is not currently being maintained. In 2020 Parichay reported “illegal immigrants” in Punjab being held in the Amritsar Central Jail, in Rajasthan in Alwar jail and in Bihar in a military camp.

In national crisis points like the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in Kashmir in March 2025, along with Rohingya refugees, Muslim, Bengali and working-class migrants are rounded up in large numbers from working class settlements and slums. It is as though their Muslim identity and Bengali tongue make them somehow complicit in the terror crimes. They are held in holding centres and some among them are flown to the international borders and “pushed” across at gunpoint.

In Assam, the BJP chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, boasted as a badge of honour that his government had “pushed back” 330 alleged illegal immigrants into Bangladesh over barely a month after the Pahalgam attack. “It is not possible for them to return”, he claimed, describing migration from Bangladesh and Pakistan to be a security threat and a threat to the language and culture of Assam. “I am an Assamese first and only then a chief minister”, he declared. In the future, he said, the state would also expel people without involving Foreigners Tribunals and even if their name was in the National Register of Citizens. In another move that was openly partisan, he declared an amnesty for all non-Muslims whose cases were pending before the Foreigners' Tribunals.

“Many names were manipulatively and cleverly included in the NRC [National Register for Citizens],” the #Assam chief minister said. “The way the NRC process was conducted has raised serious doubts and concerns.”

Read more: https://t.co/QjXDpe88vX pic.twitter.com/aZs8rCkKUk

— Scroll.in (@scroll_in) June 12, 2025

Human Rights Watch reports that in mid‑2025, hundreds of ethnic Bengali‑speaking Muslims were expelled from India into Bangladesh without due process, after authorities labelled them ‘illegal immigrants.’” Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, “The authorities’ claims that they are managing irregular immigration are unconvincing given their disregard for due process rights, domestic guarantees, and international human rights standards.” She was categorical that “India’s ruling BJP is fueling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens.”

The Indian government has not made any official data on the number of people expelled, but Border Guard Bangladesh has reported that India expelled more than 1,500 Muslim men, women, and children to Bangladesh just between May 7 and June 15, including about 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. The expulsions continued since then. These expulsions involve, sometimes, border guards allegedly threatening and beating the detainees to force them to cross into Bangladesh without adequately verifying their citizenship claims.

We see a recurring pattern of massive police crackdowns and detentions of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states on suspicion that they are Bangladeshi. Such reports came from Assam, Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh through 1925.

“The Indian government is putting thousands of vulnerable people at risk in apparent pursuit of unauthorised immigrants, but their actions reflect broader discriminatory policies against Muslims,” Pearson said. “The government is undercutting India’s long history of providing refuge to the persecuted as it tries to generate political support.”

In Odisha, for instance, 400 Bengali migrant workers were detained by the police on the suspicion that they were Bangladeshi. The police seized their phones to check for calls to Bangladesh. They turned down identity cards like voter IDs and Aadhar cards as proof of their Indian citizenship. Instead, they asked them to call home and request their relatives to send birth and school certificates.

The migrants have “worked outside Bengal for years — something like this has never happened before”. The migrants report being desperately worried because they have few options for work and survival except migration which has become so fraught. The father of one of the arrested Bengali workers asked that, “when the released migrants come back, what will be their livelihood? They have to run families. Where will they go to work next?”

In Ahmedabad, directly after the Pahalgam terror attack, during the months of April and May 2025, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation demolished more than 7,000 homes. Most of these were of Muslim workers, labourers, and long-term residents who say they have lived in the city and in that location for decades. The authorities alleged that many in the settlement were “Bangladeshi infiltrators”, a suspicion that typically they did not feel called upon to justify.

There were widespread crackdowns in the slum shanty and over 6,500 people were detained ostensibly for citizenship verification. Through the hot summer and monsoon, thousands among them were rendered homeless. One of the residents, Rafi, said, “We had about 500 to 1,000 houses here. We lived here for 40 years. My mother came here after marriage, and the government never asked us for papers”. He added, “They should have regularised our homes instead of bulldozing them without warning. I have lived here all my life. My parents helped build this community. Suddenly, they just broke everything without proper notice. They said they are removing ‘Bangladeshis’ and illegal settlers. But what about the rest of us?”

In Maharashtra again, the authorities rounded up several internal migrants from West Bengal, and pushed an uncounted number of them across the border. Nazimuddin Sheikh was one of them. A 34 year-old migrant mason who had worked in Mumbai for five years suddenly found his home raided by the police. The police confiscated his mobile phone, tore up his identity documents and then flew him in a BSF plane along with over 100 others to the BJP-ruled Tripura state, which borders Bangladesh. “The [BSF] did not listen to us when we told them we are Indian,” he said. “If we spoke too much, they beat us. They hit me with sticks on my back and hands. They were beating us and telling us to say we are Bangladeshi.”

With eight others, he was then pushed into Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the residents of a border village allowed him to call his relatives. Taking pity about their predicament, the villagers then took him to a local outpost of Border Guard Bangladesh, where the border guards handed him back to Indian officials.

Just 10 days to prove you are an Indian citizen.

Assam has a new SoP.

“This is the Assam government’s way to put some kind of legal imprimatur on its policy of forcibly pushing suspected foreigners into Bangladesh.”@ZamanRokibuz_ reportshttps://t.co/BPO46YCgmG

— Supriya Sharma (@sharmasupriya) September 29, 2025

A 1950 Assam law

The extra-judicial project of pushing people the state alleges to be foreigners across the international border to Bangladesh without due process, often called “pushback”, was implemented avidly first in Assam and then increasingly in other BJP-ruled states. To give this even greater muscle, the chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, has weaponised a Partition-era law, and before this, parliament in mid-2025 has passed a statute that further powers “pushback”.

The 1950 law that has been exhumed and the new federal law that has been promulgated give a legal facade to a process that is essentially unjust, inhumane and an attack on the intentionality and morality of the constitution. An elaborate “legal” infrastructure of “holding centres”, foreigners’ tribunals, “pushbacks” and mass targeted evictions – often specifically targeting Bengali-speaking Muslim settlers and migrants – worryingly appears to be building blocks of a baleful project for manufacturing statelessness and eventually ethnic cleansing.

In the post-Partition turmoil of massive movements of populations across the new border, parliament legislated in 1950 a law that provided for summary investigations into citizenship and expulsions. But back then, the operation of this law was short-lived, because Jawaharlal Nehru quickly stopped its operation due to the dangers inherent in it of amenability for its misuse to deny Muslims Indian citizenship.

Amidst the turmoil and anxieties of Partition, the Indian government led by Nehru passed the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act 1950. To allay fears of Assam being swamped by massive migrations from East Pakistan, the law empowered the central government to expel “a person or a class of persons” who were “ordinarily resident outside India and have come into Assam” if it believed that their stay was “detrimental to the interests of the general public of India”.

There were two significant features of this Partition-era law. The first was to authorise the official assessment of a person’s citizenship through summary executive action rather than by any judicial process. The second was the exception the law made to not expel refugees fleeing Pakistan on account of “civil disturbances or fear of such disturbances”.

Historian Binayak Dutta observes that the law created “a legal foundation for differentiation between non-Muslim and Muslim migrants on the ground”. In effect, in 1950 what the law did was to give protection to Hindu migrants and to exclude Muslims from these protections. It is both these features of the 1950 law that the Assam chief minister 76 years later chose to weaponise when he exhumed the law.

However, the operation of this law back in 1950 was very brief. Nehru directed Assam chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi to stop deportations under the act after he signed with Pakistan Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan a pact in April 1950 to protect the interests of minorities in their countries.

The law then remained in abeyance for over 75 years until Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma decided to resurrect it. Without going to the legislature, the Sarma government simply issued a “standard operations procedure” under the 1950 law laying down that anyone suspected of being an illegal migrant would be required to prove they are Indian citizens within 10 days. If the evidence that the person presents is found to be “not sufficient/satisfactory”, the district commissioner “will record his opinion in writing identifying the person to be an illegal immigrant”, and order their expulsion within 24 hours. This, without referring them, as they did in the past, to the Foreigners’ Tribunals and central deportation rules.

For impoverished and poorly lettered Assamese Muslims of Bengali origin, the impact of the resurrection of the 1950 law and the “special operations procedure” issued by the state government has been immediate and calamitous. Research scholar Angshuman Choudhury believes that the new system will create “an incentive-based pathway for district commissioners to showcase their administrative performance by identifying as many ‘foreigners’ as possible”. He rightly predicted that “Bengali Muslim minorities will bear the full force of this bureaucratic regime of disenfranchisement.” “In Assam, when the government does not find foreigners, it makes them,” advocate Zaman said. Another lawyer said this procedure “turns the executive into the judge, jury, executioner”.

The traumatic National Register of Citizens was implemented in over six years. Now the time that a person is given to prove her citizenship is just 10 days. It would take much longer for a person even to apply for official documents. Second, with all their flaws, at least their applications were heard by the quasi-judicial Foreigners’ Tribunals.

For five years, the Centre said persons included in the NRC will be given an Aadhaar as per the SOP. The SOP was silent on the NRC left out.

Now the people who did not make it to the NRC also got Aadhaar.

Many questions remain unanswered.https://t.co/pS2IAtRoC3

— Rokibuz Zaman (@ZamanRokibuz_) October 6, 2024

According to a report by the National Law School of India University and Queen Mary University of London, led by Mohsin Alam Bhat, who teaches law at Queen Mary University, the foreigners’ tribunal system was untenable and fundamentally illegal, with little regard for due process and principles of natural justice. Admitting to all its flaws, the system at least allowed some kind of process, and importantly appeals to higher courts. Now all those routes have been slammed shut.

As Article 14 observes, “By allowing bureaucrats who have no judicial training or any experience in the specialized field of citizenship determination to dabble in it freely, the government is formalising a thoroughly discretionary, opaque and arbitrary regime of large-scale disenfranchisement”. After the summary 10-day investigation, when officials conclude that a person is a “foreigner”, it directs the person to remove himself or herself from the territory of India. What this means in practice is to consent to “pushback” into a country that is not your own, in which often you have no one who is your own.

Even more worryingly, this new norm of citizenship being determined by officials rather than by any judicial process is being replicated in other BJP-ruled states where BJP state governments are directing district authorities to identify and expel suspected illegals without relying on any judicial or quasi-judicial process.

Human Rights Watch found in Assam that several people whose appeals were pending in tribunals or courts were also detained and expelled to Bangladesh. It writes of a 51-year-old daily wage worker living in Barpeta district whose appeal was pending in the Supreme Court against an ex parte judgement in 2014 that had declared him an irregular immigrant. Still, the authorities detained him, and two days later, Border Security Force forcibly pushed him into Bangladesh after midnight and.

He said: “I walked into Bangladesh like a dead body. I thought they [the BSF] would kill me because they were holding guns and no one from my family would know.” There were five other men like him. In Bangladesh, after walking many hours, villagers directed them to a river island where they managed to cross back into India.

Khairul Islam, 51, a former schoolteacher from Assam, said the border officials tied his hands, gagged him, and forced him into Bangladesh, along with 14 others. “The BSF officer beat me when I refused to cross the border into Bangladesh and fired rubber bullets four times in the air,” he said. He smuggled his way back two weeks later.

They did not even inform the families of persons who were pushed across the border. The wife of Khairul Islam only discovered that her husband was in Bangladesh when a journalist showed her a video of her husband that had been taken by a Bangladeshi journalist.

A 69-year-old Maleka Khatun, who could not walk without assistance and had weak eyesight, was pushed alone into Bangladesh around 3 am. Her son found out when his mother called from a phone villagers lent her in a Bangladeshi village days later. She had spent six years in a detention centre and been released on bail in 2024. “I have no idea how to bring her back,” her son lamented.

Making bewatan

Hindutva, the ideology of the ruling BJP, never conceded the right of Muslims and Christians to live in India as equal citizens. It regards the adherents of these religions as persons of suspect loyalty, traitors to the Hindu nation. In the 100 years since the formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and from even before this, Hindutva ideologues have made clear that they seek for them to be expelled or at least reduced to second-class citizenship.

The BJP-led government of Narendra Modi since 2014 has implemented key segments of the ideological project of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. These include the building of a grand temple at the site of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, the annulment of the special constitutional status of what was India’s only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir, and the promulgation in many states of a Uniform Civil Code.

In open or covert concert with Hindutva activists, the ruling regime has subjected Indian Muslims to a battery of hate crimes and often even genocidal hate speech; targeted bulldozers’ on Muslim abodes; attacked Muslim livelihoods, their worship and cultural symbols; and mounted calls for the demolition of a growing list of historical mosques to build Hindu temples over their ruins.

Each of these has ravaged the access to equal citizenship and rights of Indian Muslim citizens. However, for the BJP-RSS establishment, this was not enough. The second and third terms of the leadership of Narendra Modi have seen a series of official actions that have directly rendered the citizenship of Indian Muslims fraught and precarious.

These began with the unapologetically partisan implementation of the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, which for the first time gave reduced rights to access Indian citizenship based on religious identity. And now you have the religious and language profiling of migrants, combined with the forcing at gunpoint of individuals alleged to be “foreigners” into Bangladesh. If you are a Bengali-speaking Muslim then this jeopardy of statelessness looms even more threateningly. This larger Hindutva project of manufacturing statelessness is what senior commentator Samar Halarnkar describes aptly as a “moral genocide”.

During the nationwide protests against the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act, Muslim women often poignantly spoke to me of their fears of being rendered – using an Urdu word – bewatan. This literally means persons without a country.

The BJP-led national government and BJP state governments are weaponising law and executive authority to threaten Indians of Muslim identity by stripping them of their rights as Indian citizens. West Bengal has now joined this BJP project of manufacturing statelessness of millions.

Indeed, to render them bewatan.

I am grateful for extensive research support from Syed Rubeel Haider Zaidi.

Harsh Mander is a peace and justice worker and writer. He leads Karwan e Mohabbat, a people’s campaign for solidarity and justice for the survivors of lynching and hate violence. He is visiting faculty in the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University. His latest book, Under Grey Smoggy Skies: Living Homeless on the Streets of Delhi Cities, is in the bookstores.

A truck driver from West Bengal was killed and a police constable was injured after unidentified gunmen ambushed an escorted goods vehicle in Manipur’s Ukhrul district on Friday, the chief minister’s office said.

The driver, 65-year-old Nitish Das from Hooghly district, died on the spot, PTI reported. He was reportedly transporting rice for the Food Corporation of India from Imphal to Ukhrul.

The injured constable sustained a bullet injury to his knee. The news agency identified him as 34-year-old Disingam Maringmei from Imphal West district.

The attack took place on NH202 between Leingangching and TM Kasom under the jurisdiction of Litan Police Station, the chief minister’s office said. The highway connects Imphal with Ukhrul town.

Personnel of the Border Security Force, the Central Reserve Police Force and the state police have been escorting trucks on the Imphal-Ukhrul highway, PTI quoted an unidentified district administration official as saying.

“Shortly before the incident, local protesters blocked roads at Shangkai to prevent the movement of the trucks,” the official told the news agency.

Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh said that the ambush “seemed to be carried out by vested interest groups with the ill-motives to derail the initiatives of the state government to restore peace and normalcy in the state”, his office said in a statement.

Singh added that the security forces had launched search and cordon operations in nearby areas to identify and arrest those responsible for the incident.

The incident took place in the same area where two Naga men were killed on April 18.

The developments on Friday came amid tensions between the Kukis and the Nagas in Ukhrul that had erupted in February after an alleged assault involving members of the Tangkhul Naga and the Kuki-Zo communities escalated into clashes.

Since the ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in May 2023, at least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read: ‘We thought peace was coming’: Manipur’s buffer zones are back in grip of violence

The Allahabad High Court on Friday sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government on a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of former journalist Satyam Verma, who was detained in connection with the April 13 Noida workers’ protest, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Salil Kumar Rai and Devendra Singh-I issued notice to the state and posted the matter for hearing on July 13.

The habeas corpus petition, filed by Verma’s wife, challenged his detention and alleged procedural irregularities in the detention and custodial transfer. The plea also sought his release from custody and that the electronic and documentary evidence related to his detention be preserved, the legal news outlet reported.

The 60-year-old former journalist from Lucknow was among two persons detained under the National Security Act on May 13. The Act allows for long periods of detention without trial up to a year.

Verma and 25-year-old Aakriti Chaudhary are members of the Mazdoor Bigul Dasta, a workers’ organisation.

The police alleged that the role played by the two was “significant in instigating violence, arson and creating chaos” during the protest. Verma and Chaudhary “provoked” persons in different areas to “disturb public order”, the police alleged.

The police have also alleged that Verma received money from foreign accounts to incite the violence.

The detention order further accused him of using “leftist” writings and literature to encourage younger people to join rebel organisations.

The order also claimed that books containing quotes by Mao Zedong and other material described as “objectionable” and “anti-democratic” were recovered from Verma’s office.

On May 19, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a petition filed by Verma’s wife challenging his detention under the National Security Act.

In that petition, his wife had argued that Verma was not present during the protests and had been targeted for being the publisher and writer of the Mazdoor Bigul newspaper, administering its Facebook page and for being associated with the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India.

She had also argued that the case was not only about Verma’s allegedly illegal arrest, but also about a “concerted deployment of arbitrary, dragnet and fabricated criminal proceedings to silence the labour class and its democratic allies”.

Verma had been picked up from a publisher’s office in Lucknow and was allegedly asked to delete an article about workers because it could “stir disturbance”.

He had reportedly agreed to take it down while maintaining that it was only about workers’ rights.

The protests

On April 13, about 40,000 to 45,000 workers from several industrial units had gathered in parts of the city to press long-standing demands that their salaries be increased. The protests came amid increasing gas prices because of the supply disruption caused by the war in West Asia.

The protests had turned violent. Videos widely shared on social media showed some protesters throwing stones and vandalising property, as security personnel tried to bring the situation under control.

On April 14, more than 350 persons had been arrested in connection with the violence.

Witnesses had alleged that the police personnel deployed to contain the violence on April 13 had beaten up the protesters.

On April 16, a video surfaced online showing police personnel assaulting women. The video was shared on social media platforms by several users, including the Uttar Pradesh Congress, who alleged that it showed police personnel in Noida lathi-charging and manhandling women workers on the day of wage hike protests.

The police commissionerate in Gautam Buddha Nagar district denied this. It said that “prima facie, the video appears to be morphed or AI-generated and does not seem to be from Noida, but rather from some other location.”

However, eyewitnesses, who did not want to be identified because of the fear of facing backlash from the authorities, told Scroll that the video accurately captured the scene they had witnessed.

Scroll also used geolocation analysis and matched the video against a press photo to establish that the location was indeed Block A and Block B of Noida’s Sector 6. Scroll visited the spot and spoke to several people who had seen the police assault. Questions sent to Commissioner of Police Laxmi Singh at the time did not receive a response.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read:

• Noida and beyond: India’s workers are being shortchanged. They deserve a fair deal

• Fact check: Despite official denial, viral video showing police beating women workers is from Noida

• Watch: Called ‘Naxal’, thrashed by Noida police for asking for wage hikes

The Delhi High Court refused to immediately restore the political campaign Cockroach Janta Party’s account on social media platform X. The bench issued notices to the Union government and X, and said that the matter will be considered after hearing them. They were directed to file their responses within four weeks.

Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the campaign, said that the government’s decision could have “far-reaching” implications and “wider ramifications”.

The account had been blocked on May 21 “in response to a legal demand”. The petition challenged the government’s blocking order, which reportedly cited “national security concerns”. Read on.

Ashok Swain writes that the Cockroach Janta Party is doomed to fade fast, unless it goes beyond meme politics. And Anant Gupta explains why the INDIA bloc is welcoming the Cockroach Janta Party, but the Congress is not.

Thirteen persons died in Pune district after allegedly drinking spurious liquor. The deaths took place in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune city.

Eight persons have been arrested in the matter, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said. He added that the police and the excise department were investigating the “entire ecosystem” behind the incident. Read on.

The Supreme Court directed High Courts that judgements in cases that are reserved should be delivered within three months. Orders on bail applications should be pronounced on the same day, it said while issuing “binding directions” to High Courts to prevent delays in pronouncing judgements.

It added that if a bail order is reserved, it must be pronounced and uploaded by the following day. The Supreme Court also said that matters involving personal liberty, anticipatory bail and regular bail must be decided with urgency. Read on.

Revising its forecast for the southwest monsoon season, the India Meteorological Department said that the country is expected to receive rainfall at 90% of the long-period average. This is lower than the 92% projection made in its first long-range forecast issued in April.

This is the first time in 11 years that a shortfall in rainfall has been predicted for the June to September period.

The long period average is the measure of the mean rainfall during the four-month monsoon season over the last 50 years. Read on.

The Supreme Court allowed wrestler Vinesh Phogat to participate in the selection trials for the 2026 Asian Games. It refused to stay a Delhi High Court order granting her interim relief, which was challenged by the Wrestling Federation of India.

Phogat had moved court against the federation’s revised selection criteria after she was declared ineligible for the trials, having missed tournaments while on maternity leave. She gave birth in July. The High Court had held that the policy was exclusionary.

While declining to interfere with the order, the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the High Court’s reasoning. Justice PS Narasimha noted that Phogat had missed a doping test in January. He also questioned why the High Court described the federation’s policy as exclusionary, adding that such norms were applicable across the board. Read on.

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The Supreme Court on Friday allowed wrestler Vinesh Phogat to participate in the selection trials for the 2026 Asian Games scheduled for Saturday, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe refused to stay a Delhi High Court order dated May 22 that had granted her interim relief. The bench was hearing a petition by the Wrestling Federation of India challenging the High Court’s decision.

Phogat had challenged the federation’s revised selection criteria, which prevented her from participating in the trials because she missed designated tournaments while on maternity leave following the birth of her child in July 2025. She also challenged a show-cause notice issued by the Wrestling Federation of India.

In its May 22 order, the High Court held that the federation’s policy was exclusionary as it did not allow the federation to consider athletes like Phogat returning after maternity leave.

The High Court had said at the time that a woman should not be at a disadvantage for taking maternity leave.

On Friday, the Supreme Court declined to stay the May 22 order but expressed reservations about the reasoning adopted by the High Court in granting relief to the wrestler, Live Law reported.

Narasimha noted that Phogat had taken a sabbatical in December 2024 and informed the federation that she would return in August 2025. After giving birth in July 2025, she later told the federation that she would be eligible to compete from January 1.

The judge added that Phogat had missed a doping test in January. He noted that the International Testing Agency had not accepted her explanation that she was attending an Assembly session as an MLA in Haryana. Phogat is a Congress legislator from the Julana constituency.

The Supreme Court acknowledged Phogat’s achievements in international wrestling but observed that global anti-doping norms must be followed.

“What is concerning when the [International Testing Agency] test is missed, it has a logical consequence, because Indian sports is integrally connected to the world sports,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying. “If some kind of disqualification appears at the global level, it reflects on India.”

Narasimha also said that he was surprised that the High Court described the Wrestling Federation of India’s policy as “exclusionary”, adding that such norms were applicable across the board.

He expressed reservations about the High Court treating the case as one related to motherhood, saying that it was about compliance with International Testing Agency norms.

During the hearing, Phogat’s counsel had argued that the case was linked to her motherhood and said that preventing her from competing would be a “national embarrassment”.

The counsel also alleged that the Wrestling Federation of India acted with malice by changing the policy. “This was tailor-made to exclude her,” Live Law quoted him as saying.

The Wrestling Federation of India denied the allegation, saying that it was only following international norms and that there was no targeted exclusion of Phogat.

Despite its reservations about the High Court’s reasoning, the Supreme Court declined to interfere with the interim relief already granted to Phogat.

“We don’t want to get into an argument as if her pregnancy is the cause of this kind of situation,” Narasimha was quoted as saying. “That approach is unacceptable. Today, there is a direction she must be permitted to participate.”

Phogat was one of the wrestlers who had taken part in protests seeking the resignation of Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Six women wrestlers have accused Singh of sexual assault. On May 3, Phogat said that she was one of them, India Today reported.

The Delhi Police registered a first information report against him in April 2023, following the intervention of the Supreme Court. On June 15, 2024, the police filed a 1,000-page chargesheet against him. The case is now pending in court.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Supreme Court on Friday directed that judgements in cases that are reserved should be delivered within three months, Live Law reported.

Orders on bail applications should be pronounced on the same day, a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said while issuing “binding directions” to High Courts to prevent delays in pronouncing judgements.

It added that if a bail order is reserved, it must be pronounced and uploaded by the following day.

The court also said that matters involving personal liberty, anticipatory bail and regular bail must be decided with urgency.

It directed that the orders granting bail or suspension of sentence must be communicated to jail authorities as soon as they are pronounced. The convict or the undertrial should be released the same day or at the latest the next day, unless they are required in any other case or delay in complying with bail conditions, the court added.

The directions came while the court was hearing an application alleging delays in the release of a High Court judgement.

The application said that the Jharkhand High Court had pronounced its judgement in December 2025, but the order had neither been uploaded on the court’s website nor made available to the litigant’s counsel, Bar and Bench reported.

Edited by Leah Thomas.

The Calcutta High Court in an interim direction on Friday said that no coercive action shall be taken against actor Parambrata Chattopadhyay in connection with a case against him for making allegedly provocative remarks during violence after the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections, Live Law reported.

The first information report had been filed against Chattopadhyay and actor Swastika Mukherjee this month on a complaint by an advocate, who alleged that the two had made remarks on social media that could have incited political violence in the charged atmosphere after the 2021 polls.

In May 2021, the Trinamool Congress had defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state elections. There was widespread post-poll violence.

At the time, the court had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the violence. A Special Investigation Team was also set up.

In his complaint, the advocate claimed that after the TMC crossed the majority mark, Parambrata had on May 2, 2021, allegedly posted: “Let today be declared World Thrashing Day”. Swastika had allegedly responded: “Hahaha, let it be.”

The complaint alleged that the remarks contributed to an atmosphere of political hostility.

The complainant claimed that Chattopadhyay “appears to abate, encourage, incite and instigate large scale violence at such time when violence against BJP workers had already started to circulate”. He alleged that Mukherjee “had endorsed such instigation and abatement of organised violence against BJP workers and supporters at large”.

On Wednesday, Chattopadhyay moved the court seeking to quash the FIR.

In its interim order on Friday, Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee noted that Chattopadhyay’s counsel had argued that the FIR is “devoid of any specific averment or any overt act or unlawful conduct” on his part, Live Law reported.

The counsel also noted that the case was filed after five years of the alleged occurrence.

While the court said that the investigating agency shall not take coercive steps against the petitioners for four weeks or until further order, it allowed the probe into the matter to continue.

Mukherjee had reportedly appeared before the police for questioning earlier this week, Live Law reported.

The FIRs against the two actors came weeks after the BJP defeated the TMC, ending the Mamata Banerjee-led party’s 15-year rule in the state. This year too, widespread political violence had been reported after the results.

Several instances of alleged communal intimidation and vandalism were also reported.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to restore immediately the political campaign Cockroach Janta Party’s account on the social media platform X, reported Bar and Bench.

Issuing notices to the Union government and X, Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said the court would consider the matter after hearing them. They were directed to file their responses within four weeks.

Kaurav added that the petition filed by Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the campaign, needed to be “considered holistically” as it could have “far-reaching” implications and “wider ramifications”.

The account of the campaign had been blocked on May 21 “in response to a legal demand”. In his petition, Dipke challenged the government’s blocking order, which reportedly cited “national security concerns”.

During the hearing, the High Court directed the review committee constituted under the Information Technology Rules to examine the petitioner’s grievance before the next hearing, scheduled for July 6, Live Law reported.

The committee is required to meet every two months and is empowered to review blocking orders and direct unblocking if necessary, said the court.

It allowed Dipke, who lives in the United States, to seek permission to appear before the review committee through video conferencing.

This came after Dipke’s lawyer argued before the court that the account was based on “pure satire”. Even if certain posts were considered objectionable, the entire account did not need to remain blocked, he said, adding that specific posts could be withheld.

The court, however, said the law relating to such actions was still at a nascent stage and observed that the present case appeared to be different because “the entire activity per se is slightly offending”.

Kaurav also noted that neither the petitioner nor the court had seen the blocking order and said it could only direct X to place it on record after the government filed its reply.

About the campaign

The campaign, which began on May 16, describes itself as a “political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth”.

Dipke is a 30-year-old political communications strategist from Pune. He has a background in public relations and journalism, and was part of the Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team.

Since it was launched in response to reports of remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant on May 15 comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”, the campaign has garnered 22.5 million followers on Instagram.

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in profession,” PTI had quoted Kant as having said. “Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone.”

The chief justice claimed on May 16 that he had been misquoted by sections of the media and that it was baseless to say that he criticised young people in general. Kant claimed he had specifically criticised “those who have entered professions like the Bar [legal profession] with the aid of fake and bogus degrees”.

Edited by Sneha.

Also read:

• Cockroach Janta Party is doomed to fade fast – unless it goes beyond meme politics
• Why INDIA bloc is welcoming the Cockroach Janta Party – but Congress is not

Thirteen persons died in Pune district after allegedly drinking spurious liquor, PTI reported on Friday.

Eight persons have been arrested in connection with the case, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

One of the persons arrested was identified as Yogesh Wankhede, a resident who allegedly brewed and supplied the alcohol, PTI reported.

Of the deaths, eight were reported from Phugewadi in Pimpri-Chinchwad and five from Pune city.

Several victims reported similar symptoms before their deaths, including dizziness, uneasiness, frothing at the mouth, breathing difficulties and a sudden drop in heart rate, the Hindustan Times reported.

Fadnavis said the police and the excise department were investigating the “entire ecosystem” behind the incident.

He said that the substance involved in the case appeared to be “something like methanol” but added that the police would provide more details after the investigation is completed.

Methanol is a toxic industrial alcohol that can cause illness, blindness or death if consumed.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Six workers were killed after a portion of an under-construction bridge collapsed during heavy rainfall in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district on Thursday, The Hindu reported.

At least two others remain trapped in the debris.

The bridge was being constructed between Morakandar and Kandaur villages over the Betwa river. A portion of it collapsed at around 2 am when some of the workers at the site had taken shelter under a hydra crane due to the heavy rain, reported NDTV.

Hamirpur Additional Superintendent Arvind Kumar Verma said that a rescue operation had been launched, The Hindu reported.

He added that personnel from the State Disaster Response Force were at the site.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath expressed his condolences to the families of those who died. He added that instructions had been issued to the district administration to swiftly carry out rescue operations in coordination with the State Disaster Response Force.

Edited by Sneha.

An Indian-origin teenager from California won the 2026 edition of the United States’ Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday.

Shrey Parikh, 14, won the contest after he correctly spelt “bromocriptine”, a prescription medicine that mimics the activity of dopamine. He was awarded a cash prize of $50,000, or around Rs 47.7 lakh.

View this post on Instagram

Parikh defeated 12-year-old Ishaan Gupta, a resident of New Jersey, in a spell-off round in which both contestants were given 90 seconds to correctly spell as many words as possible.

Judges said Parikh correctly spelt 32 words, while Gupta managed 25.

This was only the third spell-off in the competition’s history since the format was introduced in 2022. Parikh set a new record during the round.

“Right now I am probably the happiest I have ever been,” AP quoted Parikh as saying. “I am just so happy and relieved, and just such a flood of emotions.”

Twelve-year-old Sarv Dharavane from Georgia finished in third place for the second year in a row, AP reported.

This was Parikh’s third appearance at the competition. He finished 89th in 2022 and reached third place in 2024, according to NPR.

The spelling contest has largely been dominated by students of Indian descent. Parikh became the 31st champion of Indian heritage in the past 37 editions, continuing a streak that began with Nupur Lala’s win in 1999. Five of the nine finalists on Thursday night were of Indian origin.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Sneha.

Also read:

• In documentary ‘Spelling the Dream’, a peek into how Indian-Americans have mastered the dictionary
• Is the spelling bee success of Indian-Americans a legacy of British colonialism?
• Reading, word lists and a whole lot of practice: How to become a spelling bee champion

Revising its forecast for the southwest monsoon season, the India Meteorological Department on Friday said that the country is expected to receive rainfall at 90% of the long-period average.

This figure is lower than the 92% projection made in its first long-range forecast issued in April. This is the first time in 11 years that a shortfall in rainfall has been predicted for the June to September period.

The long period average is the measure of the mean rainfall during the four-month monsoon season over the last 50 years.

In its press release on Friday, the India Meteorological Department said that the rainfall during the southwest monsoon season is most likely to be normal over northeast India, and below normal over the central, south peninsular and northwestern parts of the country.

The average rainfall for the country as a whole in June is most likely to be below normal, or less than 92% of the long period average, the weather department added.

Monsoon continues to make progress

Meanwhile, the southwest monsoon continued to make steady progress across the country, advancing further into parts of the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, The Indian Express quoted the India Meteorological Department as saying.

Conditions remain favourable for its spread into more parts of peninsular and northeastern India over the next few days. It is expected to advance further into more parts of the southern peninsula, northeast India and central Bay of Bengal over the coming week.

Written by Leah Thomas. Edited by Sneha.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the Gauhati High Court on Wednesday that he had been accused of hate speech based on selective extracts from interviews and speeches, Live Law reported.

In an affidavit submitted in the court in response to petitions seeking action against the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, he said that “extracting selective portions or isolated lines from an interview is capable of distorting the true meaning”, according to Northeast Now.

Since January, Sarma has made a series of remarks targeting Bengali-origin Muslims in Assam, calling them “Miyas”. The BJP leader had said that it was his job to “make them suffer”.

In Assam, “Miya” is a derogatory word used to refer to undocumented immigrants and is exclusively directed at Muslims of Bengali origin. They are often accused of being undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.

Once a pejorative in Assam, from the common use of the honorific “Miya” among South Asian Muslims, the term has now been reappropriated by the community as a self-descriptor to refer to Muslims who migrated to Assam from Bengal during the colonial era.

After Sarma’s remarks, Assamese scholar Hiren Gohain, Director General of Police Harekrishna Deka and activist Paresh Malakar had moved the court against him.

In April, the Gauhati High Court granted four more weeks to the Assam government and the BJP leader to respond to the petitions seeking action against him.

On Wednesday, Sarma questioned the authenticity and completeness of the materials relied on by the petitioners, stating that only photocopies of newspaper reports containing “one or two isolated lines” had been submitted, the newspaper reported.

Sarma further alleged that reporters and authors of some news reports had added their own interpretations and editorial comments while selectively quoting him, which he said had the effect of damaging his reputation, reported Northeast Now.

The chief minister also said he was unable to respond effectively to the allegations without access to the original material and asked the court to direct the petitioners to provide complete, unedited transcripts or recordings of the speeches and interviews referred to in the pleas.

In his affidavit, Sarma said several first information reports had already been registered about the allegations and argued that since investigations were already underway, there was no need for further judicial intervention, Live Law reported.

He also said an earlier complaint examined by Latasil Police Station was later closed after police found no cognisable offence.

Directing that full transcripts of the speeches quoted in the petitions be provided, the High Court listed the matter for further hearing on August 6.

In their pleas, the petitioners had also referred to a video posted by the BJP’s Assam unit on February 7, which showed the chief minister firing at images of two Muslim men at point-blank range.

The video reportedly combined footage of Sarma handling rifles with AI-generated visuals depicting Muslims as targets. The on-screen text included phrases such as “Foreigner free Assam”, “No mercy”, “Why did you not go to Pakistan?” and “There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis”.

The clip was deleted following social media criticism.

However, on March 12, the BJP leader said that he would repost the video but by labelling those being shot at as “Bangladeshis”.

Besides these petitions, Sarma is also facing proceedings related to hate speech before a Delhi court on a plea filed by activist and writer Harsh Mander.

Edited by Sneha.

Also read:

• Has the Supreme Court gone soft on hate speech? 
• Himanta Sarma’s remarks about ‘Miyas’ make a mockery of the Constitution

Two days after Kiswar Jahan sent off her 15-year-old son Irfan Shaikh to a madrasa in Maharashtra, she heard that he had been stopped at a railway station in Madhya Pradesh and detained.

Shaikh was among 100-odd children from Bagdahara village going to the madrasa in Latur district. They were not alone. They were accompanied on the long train journey by a teacher from the madrasa.

But in Katni, a team of railway police and child welfare officers stopped the train and “rescued” 163 children from Araria travelling to madrasas in different groups on the suspicion that they were being trafficked.

Most parents did not have the means to rush to Madhya Pradesh. Jahan, a widow, is poor too but she dug into her savings to buy a train ticket.

On April 13, she and 40 others travelled to Madhya Pradesh to convince the authorities that the children were not being forced into labour. “I showed all the documents to prove that he is my son,” said Jahan. “But they did not release him. They said go back home. We will send your son later,” she said.

In the 13 days that he spent at the government home in Jabalpur, Irfan Shaikh recalled being asked several questions. “They asked me about my parents, why I travel so far to study in a madrasa,” he said. “Aur pucha ki aatanqwadi ban ne ja rahe ho kya wahan.” And then they asked whether I was going there to become a terrorist.

Manish Tiwari, chairperson of Jabalpur’s Child Welfare Committee, defended the line of questioning. “What is wrong with that? The police also asked them this,” he said. “Given today’s environment, this is normal. Since these are children traveling to a madrasa, we have to verify everything.”

Eventually, all 163 children from Araria were released, when the Madhya Pradesh child welfare officers and police found no evidence of trafficking.

This was not a one-off case.

As Scroll has reported, this year alone, 375 children have been intercepted and detained from trains by authorities in nine instances, on the suspicion that they were being trafficked. In eight cases, all the children were Muslim. In seven of the nine cases, the children were on their way to madrasas.

The suspicion of child trafficking turned out to be false in all nine cases, Scroll was able to confirm with the police, child welfare committees, parents and madrasas.

All but one of the detentions were carried out in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party – six cases were reported from Odisha, two from Madhya Pradesh and one from Karnataka.

On April 27, a group of activists held a press conference in Araria, claiming that the sudden rise in rescues of children travelling to madrasas was selective targeting of the community. “We believe there is a narrative being set,” Ashish Ranjan, from Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, said during the conference. “And Muslim children are the latest target.”

Kamayani Swami, also from the Sangathan, said the trend of Muslim children going to study in madrasas is not new. “Then why have such detentions suddenly grown?” she questioned.

A few madrasa heads Scroll spoke to said they suspected a design to disrupt madrasa education.

Deepak Kumar Verma, chairperson of Araria’s child welfare committee, refuted the allegations. He pointed out that since Muslim children travelled long distances without their parents, they were “in need of care and protection as per Juvenile Justice Act” and the detentions were according to legal provisions.

Shambhu Kumar, district child protection officer in Araria, however, said that what drew attention towards the movement of these children was “their habit of travelling in large groups with identification markers”. “Such a large group is bound to attract attention,” he said.

‘We have nothing to hide’

After Irfan Shaikh and other children were detained in Katni, the Madhya Pradesh police sent a team to two madrasas in Maharashtra and one in Karnataka where the children had been headed.

“We sent an officer to each madrasa for verification,” said Lalta Kashyap, inspector with the Katni railway police. “They checked with the local police and found no complaint of child labour ever being recorded against the madrasas.”

One of the madrasas they visited was the Darul Uloom Imamdiya madrassa in Bidar, where 30 children from Bihar had planned to study.

The head of the madrasa, Mohd Zakir, said the police inspected their register, saw where classes were held, where the children lived and ate, what food they ate and left. “We have nothing to hide. No child is forced to indulge in any sort of labour,” he said.

Similarly, at the Ashrafia Anjuman-e-Islamia madrassa in Maharashtra’s Udgir, Maulana Azizur Rehman said the Madhya Pradesh police took his statement, visited the campus, asked many questions and left.

Of the four madrassas inspected in Cuttack, Bidar, Udgir and Jagatsinghpur, all taught mathematics, English, Hindi or Odia. Two had tie-ups with nearby government schools to provide additional education in non-religious subjects.

Odisha detentions

Between April 1 and April 14, 85 children travelling to madrasas in Odisha were detained at Cuttack railway station in three instances.

“We detained them because we suspected they were being trafficked,” Raj Singh Mallik, Cuttack Railway Police Force station officer, told Scroll.

The children intercepted on April 1 were allowed to continue their journey after they produced proof of their parents’ consent, Mallick said.

Those detained in the two other instances were kept in a local children’s shelter home.

Abid Hussain, a resident of Rajokhar village in Araria district, was accompanying one group of children, including his 12-year-old son, when they were detained on April 14 at the Cuttack station.

“Since I was with my son, he should not have been taken away. But the police did not listen,” Hussain told Scroll. He had to return home after waiting for a few days because he could not afford meals and a hotel in Cuttack.

Eventually, all the children were sent back to Bihar after a month, as the authorities failed to find any evidence that they were being trafficked, Manas Ranjan Biswal, chairperson of Cuttack child welfare committee, told Scroll.

Several madrasa heads told Scroll that the interceptions have risen sharply after the BJP came to power in the 2024 state elections.

Qazi Shaikh Sharif, who heads the Jamia Islamia Riyaztul Uloom madrassa in Jagatsinghpur, said 59 children headed to the institution were detained in Cuttack.

“No case of child labour has ever been filed against us,” he said. “If the police and the child welfare committee had done a quick check, they would have discovered our credibility. But there seems to be a motivated attempt to disrupt madrassa education,” Sharif said.

Runaway children, and a false alarm

In the early hours of April 18, 24 children ran away from a madrasa in Tumakuru, Karnataka. They hopped onto a train and reached Bengaluru where a railway police force constable spotted them.

“The RPF handed the children to us. When they came, they were all shabbily dressed and very hungry,” district child protection officer Asha HK told Scroll.

Asha, who recorded statements of all children, said that they complained about tasteless food and physical abuse at the Jamia Arabia Hasinia Trust madrasa.

Asha filed a first information report with the railway police.

Nine days later, the parents of the 24 children, from Palasi block in Araria, reached Bengaluru.

Several of them told Scroll that the children, when caught by the police, lied about being assaulted. “They thought they would be allowed to go back home if they blamed the madrasa,” said Mohammad Mojim, an autorickshaw driver. “But when I asked my son Najmuddin, he said he was missing home and decided to run away.”

Rais, a labourer from Araria and the father of a 14-year-old who fled the Tumakuru madrasa, had a similar story. “I asked him why he ran away, he said he didn't like the food and missed home.”

Hazrat Usman, who heads the madrassa, said all the 24 children were new to the madrasa and were struggling to adjust to the new environment. “We don’t keep our gates locked. They ran away at night and we realised they were missing at 5.30 am when other children were woken up,” he said.

The allegations of children being hit and put to child labour are “false”, he said.

An inspection at the madrasa found Usman’s claim to be true.

Pavithra G, a child protection officer in Tumakuru who visited the madrasa on May 17 along with the local police, confirmed that no evidence of labour or abuse was found. “We spoke with the children in the madrassa. It is hygienic and well maintained. There have been no complaints in the past,” she said. But she also found that the madrasa has no tie-up with any school. It taught religious texts and a little bit of English and mathematics.

Pavithra added that the 24 children later requested that they be allowed to change their statement.

A campaign against madrasas

The detentions are taking place in the backdrop of a sustained campaign against madrasas by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights’ sustained campaign.

In May 2024, the NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo wrote to all chief secretaries to be vigilant against children being illegally transported from one state to another. It specifically made note of an April 26 incident that year in which 95 children travelling from Bihar’s Araria to Uttar Pradesh to study in a madrasa were “rescued” in Ayodhya.

It added that action must be taken under both Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and sections pertaining to trafficking of children in such cases.

The same year, in two separate directions on June 7 and June 25, the NCPCR asked the Uttar Pradesh government to stop funding and recognition of madrasas and again asked for students to be moved to schools. These directions were stayed by the Supreme Court.

The commission did not relent. In October 2024, it came out with a report titled ‘Guardians of Faith or Oppressors of Rights?: Constitutional Rights of Children vs. Madrasas’ in which it recommended stopping state funding for madrasas and closing madrasa boards, claiming that it provided inadequate secular education. Kanoongo stated that the report took nine years to be prepared.

This was not the first time the NCPCR took a stand against madrasas.

In 2022, it directed all state chief secretaries to conduct a detailed inquiry into government-funded madrasas that admit non-Muslims and to transfer them to schools, and a mapping of all unrecognised madrasas.

The commission based its direction on “various complaints” it had received against madrasas and noted that states were funding such institutions.

A protocol for travel

Child welfare officials involved in the “rescues” said that the children from Araria did not have credible documents to suggest that they were travelling for education.

In at least three cases, Scroll found, teachers were carrying a letter from the mukhiya of a local panchayat mentioning the name of the child, where he was traveling, and for what purpose. The documents also included the Aadhaar cards of the children and their parents and a letter from the madrasa with details of admission.

“These documents are adequate to facilitate smooth travel,” pointed out advocate Rameez Reza, who helped the families involved in the Katni incident.

But several child rights experts were divided on this. Santosh Shinde, former child welfare official and currently director at child rights NGO Vidhayak Bharti, said the documents are not legal under the Juvenile Justice Act and a child found without his parents “is a child in need of protection”.

He, however, agreed that such rescues lead to acute difficulties for the child and parent. “The respective state minority commissions should map this migration and lay down a protocol to allow a child’s travel,” he said. “Unfortunately that is not happening.”

Madrasa heads in both Odisha and Maharashtra told Scroll that the scrutiny was making them uncomfortable. “We gave admission to Bihar children because they are poor and in need of free education. But if we have to face so many issues, it is better we stop admission of children from Bihar,” said Maulana Azizur Rehman, the head of the Udgir madrasa.

Also read:

Why parents from Bihar’s poorest district send children to madrasas hundreds of miles away

Acclaimed Urdu poet and Padma Shri awardee Bashir Badr died in Bhopal on Thursday, PTI quoted his family as saying. He was 91.

At least seven collections of Badr’s poems have been published in Urdu and one in Hindi, according to the news agency. Among his ghazal collections are Ikai, Image, Aamad, Aahat and Kulliyat-e-Bashir Badr.

A collection of his Urdu ghazals was also published in the Devanagari script, titled Ujjale Apni Yadon ke.

Badr was born in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya in 1935 and was believed to have started writing poetry at age seven.

He was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian honour, in 1999. He was also awarded four times by the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy and once by the Bihar Urdu Academy, according to PTI.

His home in Meerut had been burned down during communal violence in 1987, during which many of his unpublished works were said to have been destroyed. He had subsequently shifted to Bhopal.

Lyricist Javed Akhtar remarked on social media that with Badr’s death, “our language Urdu has become a little poorer”.

“The poet and his poetry will live on in our memories forever,” said Akhtar.

Poet and Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi said that Badr’s death was an “irreparable loss”, PTI reported.

VIDEO | As Urdu poet Bashir Badr passed away, Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi (@ShayarImran) says, "I have many personal memories associated with him. It is an irreparable loss. I can remember in 2002-03, when I heard him reciting, 'log toot jaate hain ek ghar banana mein, tum… pic.twitter.com/pkstdchdOU

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 28, 2026

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Officials from the Union Ministry of Education, the National Testing Agency and the Central Bureau of Investigation have been asked to appear before a parliamentary committee on Friday in connection with matters pertaining to the conduct of entrance examinations, reported PTI.

In a notice issued on Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said the officials had been summoned in regards to an assurance given in the Upper House of Parliament in response to an unstarred question raised on November 27, 2024, about the investigation into allegations of paper leak in the 2024 undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.

It had also included queries related to the procedure followed by the National Testing Agency to award contracts for conducting examinations through private vendors.

Allegations of question paper leaks and other irregularities in the 2024 NEET for admission to undergraduate medical courses had surfaced after the results of the examination were declared on June 4 that year.

In its answer in Rajya Sabha, the Ministry of Education said that the CBI was carrying out a “comprehensive investigation into the entire gamut of alleged irregularities including conspiracy, cheating, breach of trust etc” in connection with the 2024 NEET paper leak case.

It said five chargesheets had been filed against 45 persons as of November 22, 2024.

The ministry also said that the testing agency awarded examination contracts in line with government rules and guidelines.

Complaints against vendors were handled according to the conditions laid out in contracts and tender documents, with penalties ranging from payment cuts to debarment in cases where deficiencies were established, it added.

On Friday, the Committee on Government Assurances will hear from Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi, testing agency Director General Abhishek Singh and CBI Director Praveen Sood.

On May 12, the testing agency cancelled the 2026 NEET-UG exam following fresh allegations of a paper leak. More than 22 lakh candidates had appeared for the test that was conducted on May 3.

The CBI is investigating the matter and a fresh examination has been scheduled for June 21.

This year, the test was cancelled after the Rajasthan Special Operations Group began investigating allegations that a “guess paper” circulated before the examination contained questions closely matching the actual paper.

The “guess paper” contained around 410 questions, of which about 120 matched the questions asked in the chemistry section, according to the Rajasthan Police.

Edited by Sneha.

Also read: Why the National Testing Agency continues to fail students in India

Project Cheetah is entering unchartered territories. And quite literally so. Early this April, a young male cheetah, KP-2, travelled over 150 km from Kuno National Park into Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in neighbouring Rajasthan, leaving a trail of suspense in its wake.

Though it was not the first time that KP-2 had undertaken long-range travel, the latest dispersal brought the young cheetah deep into the tourist zones of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. It also led to a rare “triple sighting” for tourists in the landscape where three big cats – a tiger, a leopard and a cheetah – were seen within the same area.

KP-2 wandered around Ranthambore for over a month, trying to establish its territory. According to the latest reports, it was eventually caught and brought back to Kuno a few days before Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s visit to the national park earlier this month.

KP-2 and its three siblings, all males, are sub-adults in their exploratory stage. Its sibling, KP-3, had also left Kuno recently and moved to the Dholpur area of Rajasthan, according to press reports.

India’s ambitious wildlife programme, Project Cheetah, introduced African cheetahs into the country decades after the extinction of the Asiatic cheetah in India. Officially launched in September 2022, the goal of the project is to establish a free-ranging cheetah population in India while also using the species as a flagship for restoring and conserving open natural ecosystems such as grasslands, scrublands and savanna-like habitats.

Daring walk into the wild

KP-2 moved cautiously, which was unsurprising given that Ranthambore Tiger Reserve is an extremely risky landscape for a cheetah because of the high density of tigers and leopards. As per the latest census released in 2022, Ranthambore holds close to 70 tigers and Kuno National Park, which is part of the Ranthambore-Mukundara-Kuno landscape, did not report any tigers.

A cheetah does not stand much chance in a landscape dominated by apex predators such as tigers and leopards, which made KP-2’s movement highly risky. Moreover, according to Dharmendra Khandal, conservation biologist at Tiger Watch in Ranthambore, the landscape itself is different.

“Ranthambore has much sparser vegetation than Kuno and the terrain is hilly and undulating,” he says. With a notable population of apex predators, Khandal says he believes that KP-2 would eventually move away (from Ranthambore).

KP-2 is one of the 18 cheetahs at Kuno that have been released into the wild as part of the project’s effort to gradually acclimatise them to free-ranging conditions. Recently, four one-month-old cubs of a female cheetah, KGP-12 – all five released in the wild – were predated upon, according to a press note issued by the field director of the Cheetah Project in Kuno. This has reduced the number of cheetahs currently in the wild to 14.

The exploratory nature of the collared KP-2 and its siblings, which are being continuously monitored like the other free-ranging cheetahs, acts as a harbinger of things to come, exposing multiple flaws in planning and execution, lack of space, habitat issues, and lack of effective management plans.

Why would free-ranging cheetahs be rescued?

In at least three other recent instances, cheetahs that wandered into nearby forests were tranquilised and brought back to Kuno National Park. KP-2 itself had previously been brought back twice after leaving the park boundaries in an attempt to establish territory.

The cheetahs are under constant surveillance. They are radio-collared, and each animal is assigned a three-member forest department team, a forest guard, a tracker and a driver, to continuously monitor its movement. When they leave Kuno, they are often caught and returned. Management also becomes more complicated when animals cross into neighbouring states because of jurisdictional issues.

Press notes issued by the field director on such instances of tranquilisation and return describe the animals as being “rescued”, raising larger questions about long-term cheetah management – What do officials actually mean when they say these animals are being “released into the wild”? And if the goal is to eventually establish a free-ranging population, what exactly are the cheetahs being rescued from?

Rewilding animals with a large home range, such as cheetahs, comes with the inherent risk of them moving into adjacent forested areas or even wandering into human habitations along forest edges, raising the question whether the authorities did not anticipate what is evidently the natural dispersal behaviour of these cats.

Inadequate habitat for large-ranging animals

The fastest land animal in the world, a cheetah has a much larger home range than other big cats such as tigers and lions. While an adult male cheetah has a home range of 13-26 square kilometres, which may go up to 130 square kilometres, a female cheetah, which is solitary, can range across 833 to 958 square kilometres.

“When cheetahs are translocated, they are known to move across areas as vast as 1,000 square kilometres,” says Ravi Chellam, wildlife biologist and conservation scientist.

This means that Kuno National Park, with a size of about 748 square kilometres, can just about hold one female cheetah or five to six male cheetahs. The size of the entire Kuno Wildlife Division is 1,235 square kilometres.

“Cheetahs occur at very low densities; in excellent habitats, there may be one or two cheetahs per 100 square kilometres. That can fall as low as 0.025 animals per 100 square kilometres if the habitat is poor,” Chellam elaborates. The density of lions and leopards can go up to 12 or 15, according to him. Tigers, on the other hand, occur at densities varying from eight to 18 animals per 100 square kilometres depending on the habitat.

The cheetah movement into nearby forests makes even more sense when one considers the location of Kuno National Park. Located in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh, Kuno is connected by viable wildlife corridors to five surrounding tiger reserves – Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve, Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve, Dholpur-Karauli Tiger Reserve, as well as Madhav Tiger Reserve in Shivpuri. “So wherever KP-2 chooses to move, similar threats exist,” points out Dharmendra Khandal.

“Cheetahs generally prefer flatter, open habitats because of the way they hunt,” says Chellam. “In East Africa, they occupy savannah ecosystems such as the Serengeti National Park and Maasai Mara National Reserve. In Namibia, many populations survive in desert landscapes.”

African cheetahs prefer antelope-sized prey weighing around 20-30 kilograms. “The problem in India is not only the lack of space but also the lack of quality habitat and prey,” Chellam highlights.

Acclimatising to Indian conditions

There are currently 53 cheetahs in India, with the majority in Kuno National Park. About 39 of them are still in enclosures. The numbers fluctuate with mortality and new births.

The first imported cheetah died in March 2023, less than a year after arriving from Namibia under Project Cheetah. Since then, several animals and cubs have died.

Only one cheetah, KGP-12 has bred and littered in free-ranging conditions in Kuno, according to a post on X by Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav on April 11. However, KGP-12 recently lost all her cubs to predation. The other cheetahs have bred in enclosures.

As per information released by the forest department, the cheetahs hunt on their own and sometimes prey on livestock as well. This raises concerns that residents of the villages in Kuno may eventually turn hostile towards the animals if livestock predation continues.

So far, Kuno National Park does not appear to have a long-term management plan to deal with the unanticipated turns the project is taking. The third annual report outlining the progress of the project, slated for release in September 2025, has still not been made public.

One of the goals of the project was to restore open natural ecosystems which are ideal habitats of the animal. “India must stop categorising open natural ecosystems as ‘wastelands’. The action plan itself says that the real purpose of Project Cheetah is to conserve these ecosystems, much like Project Tiger helped conserve forests,” Chellam suggests.

The discourse around KP-2’s daring move exposes a deep and festering question around India’s flagship wildlife project: Without adequate habitat or prey base, and with more cheetahs expected to arrive from Africa, what direction will the project take in the years to come?

This article was first published on Mongabay.

Congress leader Siddaramaiah resigned as the chief minister of Karnataka, saying that he was following the party leadership’s decision. “I am making way for a new chief minister,” he added.

Siddaramaiah said that he had submitted his resignation letter to the governor’s office and that it would be accepted in due course. He said that the Congress leadership had offered him a Rajya Sabha seat but that he declined it as he wants to remain in state politics.

Shivakumar is reportedly expected to become the next chief minister. Read on.

The Centre acknowledges discrepancies in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s On-Screen Marking evaluation process and accepts responsibility for them, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. He said that strict action would be taken against anyone found “intentionally responsible” for irregularities in the process.

The on-screen marking system for evaluating Class 12 answer sheets has come under criticism in the past two weeks following complaints about alleged glitches and irregularities during the evaluation process. Several students alleged that scanned copies of answer sheets uploaded by the board did not match their handwriting, raising concerns about possible answer sheet mismatches.

However, Pradhan claimed that it is a globally-accepted and “student-centric” system aimed at increasing transparency. He said that experts from the Indian Institutes of Technology in Kanpur and Chennai had been roped in to help the board’s technical team in resolving the glitches. Read on.

Retired judge Giribala Singh was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a case pertaining to the alleged dowry death of her daughter-in-law Twisha Sharma. This came a day after the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday quashed the anticipatory bail granted to Singh by a trial court on May 15 on the grounds that the allegations were against her son.

The state government and Sharma’s parents had challenged Singh’s anticipatory bail. The High Court noted that Sharma’s family had also made allegations against Singh.

Sharma, a 33-year-old model-turned-actor from Noida, was found dead at her marital home in Bhopal on May 12. While her husband’s family claimed that she died by suicide, Sharma’s family alleged that she was harassed for dowry and murdered. Read on.

Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar accused party colleague Kalyan Banerjee of repeatedly verbally abusing her in Parliament, and sought permission from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to file a complaint against him. She claimed that similar conduct had also been directed at other women legislators.

Banerjee asked why Dastidar had not approached the speaker immediately if she believed that he had made disrespectful remarks about her in Parliament.

A day earlier, Dastidar resigned from all her organisational posts in the TMC. The four-term Lok Sabha MP also stepped down as the party’s Barasat district chief earlier this week. Read on.

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The Wrestling Federation of India has moved the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court order allowing wrestler Vinesh Phogat to participate in the selection trials for the 2026 Asian Games, PTI reported. A bench is expected to hear the petition on Friday.

On May 22, the High Court granted permission to Phogat to take part in the trials for the Asian Games, saying that the Wrestling Federation of India’s policy was exclusionary, because it did not allow the federation to consider athletes like Phogat returning after maternity leave. The court had said that a woman should not be at a disadvantage for taking maternity leave.

The High Court had directed that the selection trials, scheduled for May 30 and May 31, be video recorded. It also ordered that one independent observer each from the Sports Authority of India and the Indian Olympic Association should be present during the trials.

The directions were issued by a division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia. Phogat had approached the division bench after a single-judge bench had refused to grant her interim relief.

Phogat was one of the wrestlers who had taken part in protests seeking the resignation of Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Six women wrestlers have accused Singh of sexual assault. On May 3, Phogat said that she was one of them, India Today reported.

The Delhi Police registered a first information report against him in April 2023, following the intervention of the Supreme Court. On June 15, 2024, the police filed a 1,000-page chargesheet against him. The case is now pending in court.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Retired judge Giribala Singh was on Thursday arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a case pertaining to the death of her daughter-in-law Twisha Sharma, who was allegedly harassed for dowry, PTI quoted officials as saying.

The arrest came a day after the Madhya Pradesh High Court quashed Giribala Singh’s anticipatory bail.

Sharma, a 33-year-old model-turned-actor from Noida, was found dead at her marital home in Bhopal’s Katara Hills area on May 12.

Her husband’s family claimed that she had killed herself. However, her family alleged that she was harassed for dowry and murdered.

On May 22, the husband, Samrath Singh, who had been on the run for over a week, withdrew an anticipatory bail petition he had filed in the High Court and surrendered before a trial court in Jabalpur. The Bhopal Police subsequently arrested the advocate.

Giribala Singh had been granted anticipatory bail by a trial court on May 15 on the grounds that the accusations were against her son, Live Law reported. However, the state government and Sharma’s parents challenged the order before the High Court.

On Wednesday, Justice Devnarayan Mishra noted that Sharma’s family had raised allegations not only against her husband but also against Giribala Singh, Bar and Bench reported.

The judge also referred to WhatsApp messages Sharma had allegedly sent to her family before her death, which contained allegations against her mother-in-law. Further, the post-mortem report indicated that the 33-year-old had suffered additional injuries before her death, the court noted.

During the hearing, the counsel for Sharma’s family and the state government objected to Giribala Singh’s interactions with the media. They alleged that the retired judge had given interviews maligning Sharma’s character.

“The person [Giribala Singh] is wielding power in the institution,” Bar and Bench quoted the counsel for the state government as saying. “In a situation where people are languishing in jail, she got relief within 24 hours.”

The state government’s counsel also argued that the trial court had granted anticipatory bail to Giribala Singh in a very hasty manner without considering all the facts of the case.

However, the advocate representing Giribala Singh said there were no allegations against her that warranted custodial interrogation. Noting that the retired judge was in her 60s, the counsel added that she had given statements to the media only because they were hounding her at her home.

Earlier in the week, the Union government told the Supreme Court that the Central Bureau of Investigation will take over the inquiry into the case. The top court was hearing a suo motu case registered about allegations of institutional bias and procedural irregularities in the investigation into Sharma’s death.

The bench also said it was “slightly pained” by the narrative suggesting that the judiciary was shielding the accused because Samarth Singh was a practising lawyer and Giribala Singh a retired judge.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Thursday sought permission from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to file a complaint against party colleague Kalyan Banerjee, claiming that he repeatedly verbally abused her inside Parliament, The Indian Express reported.

Banerjee’s behaviour reflected misogyny, the Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal’s Barasat seat alleged in a letter to the speaker. She also claimed that similar conduct had been directed at other women legislators as well.

“I seek your permission to lodge a formal complaint to you for redressal against Lok Sabha member of AITC Kalyan Banerjee, who has repeatedly verbally abused me inside the Lok Sabha,” the newspaper quoted Dastidar as saying in her letter to Birla. “This misogyny has been against many lady members and needs to be punished.”

A day earlier, Dastidar resigned from all her organisational posts in the TMC. The four-term legislator in the Lower House also stepped down as the president of the party’s Barasat organisational district unit earlier this week.

The Barasat MP, in her resignation letter to the party, claimed that there was little meaning in continuing in a position where “obscene behaviour” by an “uneducated and uncivilised” party MP towards a woman legislator could not be stopped, The Indian Express reported.

She also alleged that the party’s higher leadership did not extend any support or sympathy to her.

Dastidar further asserted that she will not quit the TMC. She added that “as an ordinary worker” of the party, she will continue her “commitment to stand beside people and work in the interest of Bengal”.

Banerjee questions timing of allegations

Banerjee, however, questioned the timing of Dastidar’s allegations, asking why she did not approach the speaker immediately if she believed that he made disrespectful remarks about her in Parliament.

Noting that the Lok Sabha speaker must be informed immediately about such incidents, Banerjee claimed that Dastidar is “acting with a motive”.

Banerjee said that Dastidar “certainly has every right to raise a complaint, but it is equally important to clarify when exactly the alleged incident took place and why no objection was raised then”.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday said that the government acknowledged discrepancies in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s On-Screen Marking evaluation process and accepted responsibility for them, ANI reported.

The OSM system for evaluating Class 12 answer sheets has come under criticism in the past two weeks following complaints about alleged glitches and irregularities during the evaluation process.

Many students have alleged that the scanned copies of answer sheets uploaded by the CBSE did not match their handwriting, raising concerns about possible answer sheet mismatches, the Hindustan Times reported.

Students seeking re-evaluation also alleged that they faced portal failures, delays in payment confirmation and, in some cases, were asked to pay excess fees because of technical glitches.

On Thursday, Pradhan said that strict action would be taken against anyone found to be “intentionally responsible” for irregularities in the evaluation process.

“We take responsibility for any problems students face and apologise for them,” ANI quoted Pradhan as saying. “I assure you that anyone found intentionally responsible for these discrepancies, regardless of their position within or outside CBSE, will not be spared.”

The education minister said that this was the first time that the CBSE used the OSM evaluation process, ANI reported. He claimed that it was a globally-accepted and “student-centric” system aimed at increasing transparency.

Experts from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur and IIT-Madras have been roped in to help the CBSE’s technical team in resolving the glitches, Pradhan told reporters.

The minister added that the payment gateways of four public sector unit banks – State Bank of India, Indian Bank, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank – have been integrated with the CBSE portal, ANI reported.

Responding to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s demand for an independent judicial inquiry and a Special Investigation Team to probe the matter, Pradhan said that the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha was “frustrated” after repeatedly losing elections.

“He opposed SIR [special intensive revision of electoral rolls], he used to oppose electronic voting machines and opposed Digital India,” the minister said, according to ANI. “He does not support India’s scientific progress.”

#WATCH | Delhi: On meeting with CBSE officials, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan says, "... CBSE has begun the revaluation process for the Class 12 examinations. Around 17 lakh students took part, with nearly 98 lakh answer copies — about 40 crore scanned pages in total. For… pic.twitter.com/Wk1LFLkslZ

— ANI (@ANI) May 28, 2026

In response, Gandhi said in a social media post that attacking him would not absolve the minister of his “crimes” and would not stop him from demanding answers on behalf of the students.

“Why was the CBSE OSM contract handed to COEMPT – a company already mired in controversy under its old name, Globarena?” the Congress leader asked. “On whose orders was it done? Why were no background checks done? What is the connection between COEMPT’s management and the Modi government?”

Dharmendra Pradhan ji, you can attack me all you want but it won’t absolve you of your crimes. Nor will it stop me from demanding answers for 18.5 lakh children.

Why was the CBSE OSM contract handed to COEMPT - a company already mired in controversy under its old name,… https://t.co/Xy8MbBTnTL

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 28, 2026

‘OSM system backed by secure platform’: CBSE

The CBSE claimed in a social media post that the OSM system is “backed by a secure and robust IT [information technology] platform” and that “no compromise or vulnerability has been reported in the actual evaluation portal”.

The board said that multiple quality checks and safeguards ensure that answer books are securely scanned and processed.

The CBSE said that students’ answer books “are safe and have been processed through multiple quality-control mechanisms”.

#CBSE #OSM pic.twitter.com/uaJcd7p3k6

— CBSE HQ (@cbseindia29) May 28, 2026

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Indian government on Thursday said that it held “constructive” and “forward-looking” discussions with China a day earlier on the situation along the Line of Actual Control.

The two countries reviewed the situation in the border areas and “expressed satisfaction with the progress made in maintaining peace and tranquillity” at the 35th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs in Beijing on Wednesday, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

The ministry added that maintaining stability along the border had helped “gradual normalisation of bilateral relations”.

Border tensions between India and China escalated in June 2020 when a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers took place in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control. It led to the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers. Beijing said that the clash left four of its soldiers dead.

Following the military face-off, both countries deployed thousands of soldiers along with heavy artillery in the region. China and India held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks to resolve their border standoff.

In October 2024, the two countries announced that they had reached a patrolling arrangement along the Line of Actual Control, “leading to the disengagement” of the two militaries in eastern Ladakh. Initial rounds of disengagement occurred at several points of tension, including Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Pangong Tso, but Demchok and Depsang had remained points of contention.

The bilateral relations have seen a thaw and picked up “good momentum” since 2024.

Edited by Leah Thomas.

Also Read:

• Interview: From Trump to West Asia, India’s diplomatic troubles go back to post-Galwan failure

• India’s knotty China problem

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine whether the Central Board of Secondary Education’s mandatory three-language policy for Class 9 students places undue pressure on students and if there are logistical challenges in implementing it, The Hindu reported.

In a circular issued on May 15, the Central Board of Secondary Education said that studying three languages would be mandatory for Class 9 students from July 1. Among the three, at least two must be Indian languages.

On Wednesday, a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant sought responses from the CBSE, the Union government, and the National Council of Educational Research and Training on the petitions challenging the circular.

The bench said that it was concerned about whether schools had adequate teachers, textbooks and infrastructure to implement the policy, The Hindu reported.

Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that students were already “saddled with academic load and peer pressure”.

He submitted that the burden would increase further as students would now need to pass an additional language for Class 10 certification, even though the assessments are said to remain internal and school-based.

The bench initially proposed listing the matter on June 15. However, following a request by the Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, it postponed the hearing to the second week of July.

The petitioners had urged the court to direct the CBSE not to implement the policy from July 1, when the academic session begins. The bench declined to pass any interim order.

‘Violates constitutional rights’

The petitions, filed by a group of parents and teachers from Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Chennai, have argued that the circular violates constitutional protections, including the right to equality and the right to education.

The petitioners have contended that the policy’s implementation in the middle of an academic session would impose an additional burden on students and disrupt preparation for Class 10 Board examinations, Bar and Bench reported. They also argued that many schools lack trained teachers, textbooks and the infrastructure needed to implement the policy effectively.

They also flagged concerns about unequal regional impact and the absence of clarity on evaluation patterns for the additional language.

The CBSE has maintained that there will be no Board examination for the third language in Class 10 and that assessments for the additional language will remain internal to schools. As part of the transition, schools will temporarily use Class 6 textbooks for the third language until dedicated material is introduced, the board had said in its circular.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

There is corruption in the judiciary and judges should not be treated as “holy cows”, the Madras High Court has remarked while refusing to ban a Tamil film for portraying the judicial system in an allegedly damaging manner, Live Law reported on Wednesday.

The court was hearing a petition filed by an advocate, who claimed that the film Karuppu scandalised the judicial system. The petition sought directions to the state government and the Central Board of Film Certification to ban or regulate the film in theatres and on streaming platforms.

The petitioner also argued that the film amounted to criminal contempt of court.

Karuppu, which was released on May 15, was directed by RJ Balaji and starred actors Suriya and Trisha Krishnan. In the film, a guardian deity disguises himself as a lawyer to fight corruption in a court system that exploits a young girl awaiting a liver transplant.

In its order on May 21, a bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan said that courts and judges are not above criticism, Bar and Bench reported. “None can deny there is corruption in the judiciary,” the bench was quoted as saying. “There were and are corrupt judges.”

It added: “Judges need not be treated as holy cows. Justice is not a cloistered virtue; she must be allowed to suffer the scrutiny and respectful even though outspoken comments of ordinary men.”

In his petition, the advocate said that a judge had been shown as being involved in bribery and consuming drugs in one of the scenes in the film, Live Law reported. Such scenes were against the Constitution and damaged the reputation of judges, the petition added. It also claimed that the director had criticised the judicial system without any application of mind.

The bench, in its order, agreed that the portrayal of the judicial system in the film is “grossly exaggerated”, Bar and Bench reported.

“But that is the way movies are taken in Tamil,” the legal news portal quoted the bench as saying. “The hero will single-handedly vanquish a dozen villains who surround him. Everything is melodramatic in Tamil cinema. Therefore, Karuppu should also be taken as one of a piece.”

The High Court said that an artist is entitled to present a story in his own way, adding that artistic licence must be placed on a high pedestal.

It also noted that the film had been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification for public viewing, Live Law reported. When the film certification board did not view the film as contempt of court, a writ petition cannot substitute its opinion, the bench added.

The bench also held that the makers of the film had not scandalised or lowered the authority of an actual court, the legal news portal reported.

It added that the judges and lawyers of an imaginary court were portrayed as corrupt in the film and not the entire judicial system.

Remarks by SC on ‘judicial corruption’

The observations by the High Court came after the Supreme Court, on May 22, recalled its order barring three academics from all government projects for drafting a chapter about “corruption in the judiciary” in a now-withdrawn textbook.

The chapter in question was part of a Class 8 social science textbook published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training. The chapter had listed “corruption at various levels of the judiciary” among the challenges that the judicial system faces. It was part of a textbook titled “Exploring Society: India and Beyond”.

The educational body on March 10 apologised for the chapter and said that the entire book had been withdrawn. The apology came two weeks after the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the matter and banned the publication and re-printing of the textbook.

On March 11, the Supreme Court held that the three academics – Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar – either did not have “reasonable knowledge about the Indian judiciary” or that they knowingly misrepresented facts “in order to project a negative image of the Indian judiciary”.

On May 22, the top court modified the “harsh” observations made in the March 11 order and expressed satisfaction that there was no malice on the part of the three academics in preparing the chapter.

Edited by Sneha.

The municipal corporation in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi has closed down a decades-old goat market ahead of Bakrid, claiming that it had received complaints about overcrowding and poor sanitation, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.

Bakrid, also known as Eid al-Adha, is a Muslim festival that commemorates the spirit of sacrifice. The festival, which is traditionally marked by the slaughtering of goats, will be observed on Thursday this year.

Popularly known as the “Bakra Market”, or goat market, Benia Bagh is a seasonal livestock market that has operated for nearly four decades. It is considered one of eastern Uttar Pradesh’s largest goat markets.

It is located about a km from the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and usually operates for a week ahead of Bakrid.

Permission for the market had initially been granted, but was later revoked following “complaints related to sanitation and hygiene”, Municipal Commissioner Himanshu Nagpal was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

He claimed that the decision was taken after officials inspected the site.

The authorities then sealed the 6,000-square-foot site four days after trading began.

This prompted protests from livestock traders, who said the action was taken without adequate notice.

They alleged that officials had ordered them to vacate the market within 30 minutes.

Shakambhari Nandan Sonthalia, the public relations officer for Smart City Varanasi, denied the allegation. He said that permission for the market had been revoked on Friday and traders were given three days to vacate the site.

When traders and shopkeepers did not leave, teams from the administration and police cleared the area on Monday and enforced the closure, The Indian Express quoted unidentified officials as saying.

Opposition parties alleged that the action was taken to create communal tensions ahead of Bakrid, according to the newspaper.

“Nobody had any problem while the market was functioning,” Congress’ Uttar Pradesh unit president Ajay Rai was quoted as saying. “Granting the permission for the market first, and then abruptly withdrawing it, appears to be a deliberate move by the government.”

Dilip Dey, the president of the Samajwadi Party’s Varanasi metropolitan unit, also alleged that the government was “looking for excuses to create communal tension”.

Edited by Sneha.

Approximately 30 lakh beneficiaries of Lakshmi Bhandar, a cash transfer scheme for women implemented by the previous Trinamool Congress government, were ineligible for it, The Indian Express quoted West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari as saying on Wednesday.

This was because the women had either been deleted from the voter rolls after the special intensive revision, or they had not applied for Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act, added the Bharatiya Janata Party leader.

The remarks came weeks after Women and Child Development Minister Agnimitra Paul said on May 12 that women whose names were deleted during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls will not receive benefits of the Annapurna Bhandar scheme, which is set to replace the Lakshmi Bhandar programme from June 1.

Under the new scheme, women will receive a monthly cash handout of Rs 3,000. Beneficiaries were getting Rs 1,500 per month under Lakshmi Bhandar.

On Wednesday, Adhikari claimed that the new government’s objective was to “create a clean list” before implementing the new scheme. The administration would have “a clear idea” once fresh application forms were submitted and reviewed, he added.

Adhikari said that fresh forms would be issued for the Annapurna Bhandar scheme and that verification would be carried out by the Women and Child Development Department, The Indian Express reported.

He clarified that until the verification is completed, the beneficiaries of the Lakshmi Bhandar scheme will continue to receive payments.

Describing the transition to the new scheme as a “huge task”, Adhikari said several departments would assist in preparing a transparent beneficiary list.

The Assembly elections in West Bengal followed a special intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission.

By April 6, about 91 lakh voters, nearly 11.9% of the electorate before the process began, had been removed. Ahead of the polling, about 34 lakh appeals were reportedly pending before the tribunals. Of these, seven lakh were against names being included in the rolls and 27 lakh were filed by persons who were excluded. Appellate tribunals set up as part of the special intensive revision process had allowed 1,607 names to be added back to the electoral rolls.

Edited by Sneha.

When she saw me walking into her home in Assam’s Barpeta district, Amina Begum attempted valiantly to get up from the bed.

Her body shook as the 68-year-old tried – and failed – to raise herself.

When I had visited Begum in June last year, she was not this infirm. She was walking, her eyes alert, her memory vivid.

But a year later, she is a shadow of that self. She cannot walk without support, or sit up straight. She is mostly confined to her bed. Her face is vacant, but it is her sorrowful eyes that speak of hopelessness and fear.

“Everything has changed in one year,” her husband, Ajmal Khan said. Both their names have been changed to protect their identity.

Exactly a year ago, Begum was secretly “pushed back” into Bangladesh by Indian authorities at gun point in the dead of the night amid a renewed crackdown on undocumented migrants. At least 300 Assam residents have been expelled from Indian territory in this fashion.

After a month, Begum managed to cross the border with the help of residents of the borderlands of India and Bangladesh and came back home to her village.

Since her return, Khan said, Begum has been wasting away. She falters while recalling incidents from her past, and loses the train of her thought while speaking. She has withdrawn from regular life and does not speak much, her daughter-in-law told me.

“But she remembers how she was dumped across the barbed wire, the days at the detention centre,” Khan said. “She is afraid that the police will pick her up and throw her in Bangladesh again.”

In 2012, Begum was declared a non-citizen by a foreigners tribunal, a decision later upheld by the Gauhati High Court in 2015, despite the fact that all her brothers and sisters are Indian citizens.

Foreigners tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies unique to Assam that rule on citizenship cases, relying on documentary evidence to decide if a person is a citizen of India.

In the last four decades, the tribunals have stripped about 1,30,000 people of Indian citizenship through a process that has been criticised by courts, legal experts and human right groups as arbitrary and loaded against the poor and marginalised.

Those who lose their cases at the foreigners tribunals have the right to challenge the orders in the higher courts. Sometimes, they have been sent to the state’s detention or holding centres. But, until May last year, they were rarely deported to Bangladesh, as a tribunal order is not proof that they are citizens of another country.

An ordinary life

Khan and Begum have spent over 20 years fighting a citizenship trial, leaving them devastated financially and emotionally.

But for nearly six decades of her life, Begum had barely stepped out of a couple of villages in Barpeta district.

“I have lived my entire life here,” Begum said. “I have not even seen any other country. How could they send me to Bangladesh?”

Khan added: “All her nine brothers and sisters live here as legitimate citizens. Her father and mother died in this country. We have been together for more than 50 years now. So how can she be a Bangladeshi?”

Begum was born into a typical Bengali Muslim peasant family in Tetlirtal village in Barpeta, a district that is home to a large number of Muslims of Bengali origin, who are also known as Miya Muslims.

According to Khan, Begum’s grandfather had come to the village before Partition from the Mymensingh region of colonial Bengal. Hundreds of Bengali Muslim peasants had been settled in the region at the time by the British, who wanted labour to expand agriculture in Assam.

“Her forefathers cleared the forest and started to live and cultivate the land – paddy, jute, among others,” Khan said.

Begum, one of nine children, was married off to Khan before she turned 18. She never went to school.

“I travelled outside my village for the first time on my wedding day,” she said.

Khan drove buffalo carts and grew paddy for a living. They had a son and a daughter.

The couple looks back on that ordinary life with longing. “We did not earn a lot,” Khan said. “But it was enough for a peaceful life. Allah gave us a lot.”

The case

Their ordeal began in 1998, around the time thousands of Bengali-speaking residents of the state – both Hindus and Muslims – were hauled up before foreigners tribunals and asked to prove their citizenship.

The border police of Barpeta district made a reference against Begum, asking her to prove her citizenship before the foreigners tribunal.

In Assam, the border police can flag any person as a doubtful citizen, much like the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency in the United States, and report them to foreigners tribunals.

“Their life changed completely with the case,” Khan’s 45-year-old nephew said. “For about five decades, they had lived together, like a pair of roosting pigeons. The fear that they would be separated started to affect their health and lives.”

Khan and Begum fought the case at the tribunal and lost. “We went to the High Court but there too we lost,” Khan said.

The cost of a legal battle was prohibitive. “This case destroyed our lives,” Khan said. “We had to sell everything. They turned us into beggars.”

A woman without documents

Both the tribunal and the high court found Begum’s documents wanting.

As Begum was married before the age of 18, she did not have any documents that could show she was the daughter of her father – no birth certificate, no school certificate. Nor did she have a name in any land documents.

This was hardly unusual in the state – or across India.

Women, especially those from marginalised Bengali-origin Muslim families, have struggled to prove their identities in Assam, especially during the 2019 exercise to update the National Register of Citizens, because of this lack of documentation. Many of them, like Begum, had not attended school, got married before being registered on the electoral roll with their parents and had no property in their name.

Begum’s name appeared on the electoral roll for the first time in 1985, as Amina Khatun, the 24-year-old wife of Ajmal Khan, a resident of a village in Barpeta.

Four years later, the family shifted to another village and her name was recorded in the 1989 voter list. However, there was an error in the spelling – ‘Amin Khatun’, her voter card said. Her husband’s name too was recorded as ‘Ahmed Ali Kha’, not Ajmal Khan.

In the voter list of 1997, her name appeared as a resident of that village again.

The only other identity document she had was a certificate issued by the headman of Tetlirtal village, which said that she was the daughter of her father and married to Khan. However, the foreigners tribunal did not take this into account.

At the tribunal, Begum submitted a voter list of 1966 featuring her father’s name and a voter list from 1997 in which she was included as Khan’s wife. The tribunal said these “two voter lists were not sufficient” to prove her nationality.

The tribunal also pointed out that she had delayed in responding to the case, which “cannot be taken lightly”.

The Gauhati High Court held that Begum “has failed to establish her linkage” with her father.

The court noted the discrepancies in her names on the voter lists while rejecting her plea, saying she had not been able to meet the burden of proof as demanded by Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946.

Advocate Sauradeep Dey, who has represented hundreds of people in citizenship cases before the Gauhati High Court, pointed out that divergences in spellings on voter lists are “quite common and normal”. “But it has become a Herculean task to make the courts understand that,” he said.

“The courts refuse to believe that the two names with some distortion can belong to one person,” Dey said. “This is despite the fact that the state authorities do not conduct any field verification nor do they adduce any other evidence to rebut the document provided and the person’s claim.”

Detention centre

The high court order led to Begum’s arrest. On August 8, 2015, she was taken to Kokrajhar detention centre, one of six such centres in Assam at the time.

All the centres were inside jails, although the detainees were separated from convicts and criminals.

A 2018 National Human Rights Commission report on the detention centres for suspected illegal immigrants in Assam said the camps are known for “the enormous and unending human tragedy of the detainees, and the extensive flouting of national and international laws.”

The NHRC mission, which also visited Kokrajhar camp, found a “situation of grave and extensive human distress and suffering”. “The [detainees] were held in a corner of the two jails for several years, in a twilight zone of legality, without work and recreation, with no contact with their families, rare visits from their families, and with no prospect of a release,” the NHRC report said. “In the women’s camp, in particular, the women wailed continuously, as though in mourning.”

Begum remembers her days at the detention camp with a shudder. “I only thought of my home, my grandchildren and my husband,” Begum said. “I wept thinking of my husband. I could not eat. I only screamed and cried.”

Khan regularly visited her for the four years she was in the detention centre. “There was not a single month when I did not visit Kokrajhar,” he said.

On each visit, he carried fruits and food from home. “I had to pay bribes at three gates to meet her,” he said. “Sometimes, she would scream and weep and become senseless during these visits. I cannot express the suffering and pain we endured.”

In September 2019, Begum was released on bail after the Supreme Court ordered that inmates who had spent over three years in detention centres be let go.

“It was a respite,” Khan said. “We thought that we were saved, but we had a horrible thing waiting for us.”

‘I am old. I could not run’

Begum’s bail conditions demanded that she report at the Barpeta police station every Thursday, which she religiously followed from September 2019.

On May 25 last year, she was asked to visit the police station again.

She was surprised.

“It was a Sunday, not Thursday,” Begum told me. “I had already visited on Thursday.”

“The police told us that they will completely withdraw the case against her,” her son said. “When we went to the office of the Barpeta superintendent of police office, it was full of people who had [foreigners’ tribunal] cases.”

By evening, Begum along with others, was arrested and taken to the Matia transit camp, the largest detention centre in India.

Her son said he feared the worst. “We thought that they would be thrown into the water or sea.”

For 15 days, they had no news of where Begum was.

Begum recalled being herded with about 50 other declared foreigners and forced beyond the “barbed wire” by the Border Security Force.

She spent the night in the swampy marshes in no man’s land, somewhere along Assam’s Mankachar-Dhubri border. “The others ran away to save themselves. I am old. I could not run.”

The next morning, she was found by the roadside, her clothes soaked with water and mud, by a Bangladeshi family. She had landed up in an area called Rawmari in Bangladesh’s Kurigram district.

“They let me have a bath, gave me clothes and food,” she said. But, fearing trouble, they soon asked her to leave.

Another woman then stepped forward. She was the wife of an elected official in the village, Begum said. “She said she will face whatever trouble comes her way. ‘You will stay with us,’ she told me.”

Begum lived with them for close to a month. “They kept me as one of their own,” she said. “Whenever I wept and said I wanted to come home, they kept my hopes up.”

Back in Assam, Khan spotted Begum in an interview by a journalist in Bangladesh.

“Until then, we did not know her whereabouts,” he said. “We got in touch with her with the help of journalists there.”

Khan spoke daily to her and began taking steps to arrange her return.

First, he wrote a letter to Barpeta district commissioner urging him to bring Begum back. “My wife is an Indian,” Khan wrote on June 19 last year. “She was sent to Bangladesh wrongfully. We have got to know that she is taking refuge in Kurigram district of Bangladesh. We request you to take necessary steps to bring her back."

There was no response from the district authorities, her family said.

The return

Khan did not rest there. With the help of activist Faruk Khan, he went to Mankachar, which shares a boundary with Kurigram district. “We went to the local police station and BSF offices in Mankachar but they chased us away,” Khan said.

He returned to Barpeta without her.

On June 27, Begum was able to cross the border with the help of residents from either side of the border.

“Two people from the Bangladesh village helped me cross a river,” she said. “We waded through chest-deep water. They left me on the Indian side. Then, our villagers picked me up in a vehicle. They dropped me at Goalpara, from where Faruk Khan brought me home.”

Her return cost the impoverished family Rs 60,000, but they fear that their ordeal is far from over. “We are glad she is home now. But everything is uncertain,” Khan said.

Then, as if giving in to despair, he said: “If the police catch her again, they should kill her. It is better to die than live this suffocated life.”

Begum, too, considered the future with dread. “I am scared they will take me away again,” she said.

She said she has been praying to Allah “to take me for good”. “It is better to die now,” she said. “I don’t want to die in a foreign land. Let me die at home.”

Several labour unions have demanded, in writing, that India’s labour codes be reformed to include more explicit provisions for working in extreme heat. Record-breaking heat in recent years has moved government bodies to issue advisories urging employers to reschedule working hours and make drinking water available to workers. But workers say this isn’t enough in the face of life-threatening heat.

“Advisories don’t scare anybody, so no one is compelled to comply with them,” said Nirmal Gorana, National coordinator of the Gig & Platform Service Workers Union.

Working in conditions where ambient temperatures are sustained above 32 degrees celsius are found to raise the risk of heat-related illness significantly. For India’s largely informal workforce, this type of exposure can be deadly. Workers and researchers woke up to this reality in 2024 – India’s hottest year on record – when temperatures crossed 40 degrees celsius for several days and resulted in more than 40,000 suspected heatstroke cases.

“That year really shaped public opinion about the importance of improving safety measures against heat,” said Aravind Unni, an urban practitioner and researcher on informality and urban spaces.

Each degree rise in temperature is estimated to reduce annual plant output by 2% and worker productivity by 2%-4%, but India’s labour laws haven’t kept pace with these impacts.

In 2020, India’s numerous labour laws were simplified and consolidated into four distinct codes – the Code on Wages, Industrial Relations, Social Security, and Occupational Safety. The codes were modified to include platform and gig workers, and expanded social security and minimum wage provisions to the informal sector. They didn’t, however, specify worker protections on extreme weather event days.

Integrating heat into health and safety protections is the next frontier for long-term, preventive action, three labour unions have said in their formal submissions, including The Amazon India Workers Association, Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers, and National Hawkers Federation.

The problem with advisories

In 2025, the National Disaster Management Authority issued comprehensive advisories for both gig and informal workers in response to brutal working conditions that came to light during heatwave days in 2024. Platform workers reported lost wages and penalties for taking breaks during peak heat hours, with no access to water or shade. Amazon workers were reportedly made to pledge that they would not use the bathroom to avoid losses in productivity, which the company attributed to an “isolated incident of poor judgement”.

A joint survey by the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union and HeatWatch in 2024 found that 51.81% of participants had experienced heat exhaustion while working, 18.07% had experienced sunburn or other skin issues, and 27% reported experiencing symptoms of dehydration.

The National Disaster Management Authority’s 2025 advisory was published after workers groups, nonprofits, and labour rights researchers pointed out vagaries in the prevailing 2019 heatwave guidelines, which mostly advised ad-hoc measures like providing shade and water.

“The latest advisory was an improvement because it recognised the exposure of gig workers specifically, and focuses on preventive rather than ad hoc measures when it comes to managing extreme heat,” said Unni, adding, “It also sets a precedent for other government departments to make similar guidelines, which they were hesitant to.”

The National Disaster Management Authority’s recommendations included providing safety kits to gig workers (UV protective shirts, ORS), making heat-specific breaks mandatory, and suspending work between 11am and 4 pm. While some of these provisions were resisted, like suspending work during peak heat hours, several platforms have since announced a slew of measures promising rest and cooling facilities for their partners. Amazon India announced a network of 250 cooled resting centres for its delivery partners, and Zomato and Blinkit have also rolled out “cooling vests”, enhanced health insurance coverage, and introduced resting points for partners.

Unions are opposing the recommendatory nature of the advisory. “The point is that platforms need to be held accountable. If they are rolling out resting points, it needs to be checked how accessible and useful they are for workers. Every restaurant or shop should have provisions for resting space and washrooms, and platforms shouldn’t engage with establishments that cannot provide it,” said Gorana, who also believes gig workers should entitled to fixed minimum wages under the Code of Wages.

In its written submission, the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers said that instead of advisories, what was needed “is a statutory conversion of these protections into enforceable minimum standards that apply consistently across aggregators and locations during notified extreme heat events.”

The Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers’ submission, dated April 21, proposes linking heat protection measures with entitlement schemes like insurance under the Social Security code. “The Code on Social Security should introduce a heat-risk protection scheme covering heat-related illnesses, income loss during heatwaves, emergency medical support, and death linked to heat exposure. This should be funded through aggregator contributions, possibly through a dedicated heat or climate-risk welfare fund,” said Ananya Tiwary, a Project Associate at HeatWatch which co-authored the IFAT’s submission.

Among the recommendations it makes are allowing paid cooling breaks of at least 20 minutes per two hours of logged work on heatwave days. Instead of generic guidelines like providing drinking water and ORS, the submission also recommends making water, shade, and rest a “verifiable mandate” by making platforms maintain a water access plan with regular audits.

Heat-related time off shouldn’t be met with penalties, and platforms should be required to provide an earnings-protection formula “so that time off is compensated. Any adverse action must be human-reviewed, recorded, and appealable via the worker’s Universal Account Number (UAN).”

Investigative media reports have revealed that some platforms had linked health insurance to coverage to the number of deliveries made, while others penalised gig workers for turning down orders.

Occupational safety hazards law

Ideally, inclusions for heat protection measures should come from the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (OSH), which governs health and safety at the workplace, said Deepa Padmar, a senior resident fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

The OSH code combines 13 labour laws covering entitlements for factory, construction, mining, dock, contract workers, and others. It does not, however, include gig workers, who instead find coverage under the Social Security code.

Before the OSH code was consolidated, laws such as the Factories Act 1948 included health and safety conditions around heat and ventilation that employers were bound to comply with, which is no longer the case.

“Neither the OSH code nor the draft rules specify temperature or ventilation thresholds, even for factory workers. The language around heat management has been broadened,” said Padmar. Under the erstwhile Factories Act, states had the power to notify their own thresholds and appoint inspection officers to check compliance. For example, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat notified their own rules mandating wet bulb temperatures not exceed 30 degrees celsius, beyond which work was considered unsafe. Wet bulb temperatures are a measure of both heat and humidity.

But section 23 of the new OSH code has centralised this provision, enabling only the central government to prescribe ventilation, temperature and humidity standards. “Even if states wanted to make such provisions in their own draft rules, it’s unclear to what extent they are empowered to do so,” Padmar added.

The failure of the code and draft rules to include provisions for heat could constitute a violation of International Labour Organisation conventions, the Amazon Workers Union has argued. “Though Chapter III of the [OSH] Code deals with responsibilities of the employer, no specific responsibilities are set out in the Rules, leaving it to the discretion of the Central government to issue necessary notifications, with no minimum requirement,” the submission adds.

The lack of specificity will lead to “more worker injury, accident, and deaths if not clarified, enforced, and regulated at both the Central and State government level with appropriate consultation with workers and unions.”

Integration with Heat Action Plans

For outdoor workers who don’t clearly receive entitlements under the labour codes, like street vendors and hawkers, workers groups are demanding better integration within Heat Action Plans – policy strategy documents outlining how states, districts, and urban local bodies should prepare for and manage extreme heat.

“In response to rising temperatures, street vendors are compelled to create temporary shade using tarpaulins, cloth, or other materials. However, these necessary coping mechanisms are frequently met with eviction drives, confiscation of goods, and harassment by local authorities on grounds of encroachment,” the National Hawkers Federation says. Inclusion as priority stakeholders in Heat Action Plans could ensure such retaliatory action stops.

This article was first published on Mongabay.

The Supreme Court upheld the legality of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission, saying that the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative” of free and fair polls. The Election Commission has constitutional powers to conduct the exercise, the bench said.

However, the court noted that the Election Commission’s inquiries for the purpose of including a person in the voter list do not mean that it can decide on whether the person is an Indian citizen.

It directed the poll panel to forward to the Union government within a week the names of the persons who had been deleted from Bihar’s electoral rolls on account of doubtful citizenship, so that their citizenship could be adjudicated upon. Read on.

The Assam Assembly passed the Uniform Civil Code bill seeking to ban polygamy and make the registration of live-in relationships compulsory. The draft legislation was passed even as the Opposition demanded that it should be sent to a select committee for scrutiny.

It paves the way for Assam to become the third state, after Uttarakhand and Gujarat, to introduce such a code after independence.

Chief Minister Himanta Sarma said that the state’s tribal population would be kept outside the purview of the code. Read on.

The Enforcement Directorate carried out searches at former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s residences in Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram as part of a money laundering investigation. The central agency is investigating whether Cochin Minerals and Rutile, a private company, paid about Rs 1.7 crore to a now-defunct information technology firm run by Vijayan’s daughter T Veena between 2017 and 2021.

The mining company, in which the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation has 13.4% stake, had allegedly made the payments to Veena’s firm with no evidence of any services rendered in return.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemned the searches, describing them as “a targeted attack on a top Opposition leader by the Bharatiya Janata Party government”.

A team of ED officials that carried out the searches in Thiruvananthapuram were attacked and their vehicles vandalised allegedly by CPI(M) workers. Read on.

A Singapore court sentenced Byju Raveendran, the founder of education technology company Byju’s, to six months in jail for contempt. The court said that he had disobeyed several orders related to his assets dating back to April 2024.

Raveendran has been directed to surrender, pay costs of 90,000 Singaporean dollars, or Rs 67 lakh, and provide documents proving his legal ownership of Beeaar Investco Pte, a corporate entity that held shares in a related company.

The proceedings in Singapore were initiated by a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, which had invested in Byju’s as it was cutting jobs and laying off staff. Read on.

The Rajasthan High Court acquitted religious leader Asumal Harpalani, also known as Asaram Bapu, of charges related to the gangrape of a minor. However, it upheld his conviction for rape in the case, which carries the punishment of life imprisonment.

While rejecting Asaram’s petition to set aside the life sentence, the bench held that the charges of rape under the Indian Penal Code, sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and offences under the Juvenile Justice Act had been proven. However, the evidence on record was not sufficient to sustain the charges related to gangrape and criminal conspiracy, the judges said.

Asaram had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court in Jodhpur in 2018 after which he had approached the High Court. Read on.

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Enforcement Directorate officials who raided the house of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday were attacked and their vehicles vandalised allegedly by Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers, The Indian Express reported.

The officials were attacked while leaving Vijayan’s house after completing the seven-hour-long raid.

The central agency had carried out searches at the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader’s residences in Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram as part of a money-laundering investigation.

It is investigating whether Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited, a private company, paid around Rs 1.7 crore to a now-defunct information technology firm run by Vijayan’s daughter, T Veena, between 2017 and 2021.

The mining company, in which the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation has 13.4% stake, had allegedly made the payments to Veena’s Exalogic Solutions with no evidence of any services rendered in return.

On Wednesday, the ED carried out searches at 12 locations in the state, including the homes of his daughter and son-in-law, former minister PA Muhammad Riyas, in Kozhikode. Offices linked to Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited were also raided.

Exalogic Solutions had entered into a contract with the CMRL in 2017 for providing software and marketing services, The Wire reported.

#WATCH | Keralam: Commotion outside the residence of former Chief Minister and present LoP Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram, as CPI(M) workers attacked a vehicle of ED officials.

The workers are protesting against the central agency over its searches at 10 premises in… pic.twitter.com/fx7Y4xutLB

— ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2026

The case came to light after the income tax department carried out searches on the premises of the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited in 2023, when Vijayan was the chief minister of Kerala.

The raids came a day after the Kerala High Court dismissed a petition by CMRL seeking to quash the ED proceedings.

Following the raids on Wednesday, Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers led by party state secretary MV Govindan had conducted a march and staged a sit-in in front of Vijayan’s house in Thiruvananthapuram, The Indian Express reported.

Party workers allegedly threw eggs and bricks at the vehicles used by the ED officials. Protesters also reportedly smashed the windshields of the cars with sticks.

Personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force and the Kerala Police struggled to control the crowd, PTI reported.

Additional Director General of Police H Venkatesh asserted that a team has been sent to arrest those accused of engaging in violence, but did not say how many persons had been taken into custody, ANI reported.

“The police are not backing away from here,” the official was quoted as saying by the news agency. “None of the accused will be let off. The police will act strictly according to the law.”

Vijayan reacts to raids

Speaking to reporters after the raids, Vijayan alleged that the ED searches were part of a “targeted crackdown” on Opposition leaders across the country, The New Indian Express reported.

The searches may provide “mental satisfaction” to leaders like the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, the CPI(M) leader said. Vijayan alleged that Gandhi had repeatedly questioned why his home had not been searched and why he had not been arrested.

The former chief minister asserted that the action would not weaken him or the CPI(M).

“This is only a beginning,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “Nobody should harbour the illusion that such actions can intimidate or weaken us.”

Vijayan further claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government had been using central agencies against Opposition leaders since it came to power, and claimed that the action against him was also part of that strategy.

Earlier in the day, Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary A Baby condemned the searches, describing them as “a targeted attack on a top Opposition leader by the Bharatiya Janata Party government”.

“Such actions will not intimidate Pinarayi Vijayan or the CPI(M),” Baby added.

He also questioned whether the new Congress-led United Democratic Front government in Kerala was complicit in the action.

In the Assembly election results announced on May 4, the UDF won 102 seats in the 140-member Assembly, defeating the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front after a decade in Opposition.

Another protest in Delhi

In a statement, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said that it had also organised a protest against the raids at the ED headquarters in New Delhi, adding that the demonstration was led by the party’s general secretary.

The Delhi Police detained more than one hundred demonstrators during the protest, the statement said. Those detained included party leaders Brinda Karat, Ashok Dhawale, Mariam Dhawale and Vijoo Krishnan, it added.

“Addressing the gathering, MA Baby strongly condemned the action carried out by the ED under the direction of the central government and stated that the raid on Pinarayi Vijayan’s residence was a politically motivated act of vendetta,” it said. “He pointed out that courts have repeatedly observed that Pinarayi Vijayan has absolutely no connection with the Exalogic case, yet the political witch-hunt against him continues unabated.”

Baby also said that such an action taking place after Chief Minister VD Satheesan’s recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi raised serious questions and appears to be a “politically orchestrated drama”.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday barred Eid prayers at the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar for the eighth consecutive year and placed Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who traditionally leads the prayers, under house detention, he alleged.

Farooq said on social media that Muslims in Kashmir had again been denied the right to offer Eid prayers at the Jamia Masjid. He said that on the occasion of Eid, people in Kashmir were met with “barricades, restrictions, locked gates and intimidation”.

“This is not governance; it is a systematic assault on our religious identity, dignity and fundamental rights which deeply hurts us,” he said.

Eid-al-Adha, also known as Bakrid, is a Muslim festival that commemorates the spirit of sacrifice. The festival is traditionally marked by the slaughtering of goats.

Farooq said that it was unfortunate that the children in Kashmir were growing up without witnessing the “spiritually uplifting Eid prayers” at the Eidgah and the associated festivities. He said that an entire generation was being deprived of traditions and memories that had shaped the collective life of Kashmiris for centuries.

Kashmir’s chief cleric further stated that “faith cannot be imprisoned or suppressed through force” and asserted that “no power on earth can erase” the spiritual bond the people “share with Eidgah, Jama Masjid and their religious institutions”.

The cleric has said that he had been placed under house arrest several times in the past years.

In March, Farooq alleged that he had been detained at his home and was not allowed to offer congregational prayers at the Jamia Masjid during the Islamic holy month of Ramzan.

He had alleged in September that he had been placed under house arrest and stopped from leading congregational prayers at the mosque, a week after an inauguration plaque bearing the Ashoka emblem inside the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar was damaged.

In July, Farooq claimed that he was placed under house arrest to stop him from referring to Kashmir Martyrs’ Day in his sermon.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday acquitted religious leader Asumal Harpalani, also known as Asaram Bapu, of charges related to the gangrape and sexual assault of a minor, PTI reported.

However, a bench of Justices Arun Monga and Yogendra Kumar Purohit upheld his conviction for rape in the case, which carried the punishment of life imprisonment. The verdict was delivered on appeals filed by Asaram and his co-accused, Sharatchandra and Shilpi, India Today reported.

In April 2018, a sessions court in Jodhpur had sentenced Asaram to life imprisonment for raping a minor at his ashram in 2013. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment under several provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Juvenile Justice Act.

On April 20, the High Court had reserved its verdict on the appeals filed by Asaram and the co-accused in the matter, PTI reported.

While rejecting Asaram’s petition to set aside the life sentence on Wednesday, the bench held that the charges of rape under the Indian Penal Code, sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and offences under the Juvenile Justice Act had been proved.

However, the evidence on record was not sufficient to sustain the charges related to gangrape and criminal conspiracy, the judges said.

The High Court also acquitted Sharatchandra and Shilpi of all charges. Both of them had earlier been sentenced by the sessions court to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment.

In its verdict, the bench also directed Asaram to surrender in view of the conviction, PTI reported.

He is currently out on temporary bail, which was extended by seven days on May 25.

In January 2023, a sessions court in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar also sentenced Asaram to life imprisonment for raping a 16-year-old girl several times at his ashram between 2001 and 2006.

Before his convictions, Asaram was a religious leader who established his first ashram in the 1970s along the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad and built a multi-crore business empire comprising various products and spiritual literature.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to consider a representation seeking that Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips have time stamps that record the exact moment that an elector casts his or her vote, Live Law reported.

A public interest litigation seeking such a direction had been filed by a businessman.

His counsel contended that the absence of a time stamp creates a “physical audit gap”, especially in cases where there are questions surrounding voting patterns in the closing hours of polling, according to Live Law.

He argued that this weakens the evidentiary value of the paper trail in dealing with such concerns.

Introduced in 2013, VVPAT machines allow voters to verify that the votes have been cast as intended, by printing the name and symbol of the party the voter has voted for. This printout is visible to the voter for a few seconds before it drops into a box.

In the court, the petitioner referred to cases where a sudden jump in the voter turnout after 5 pm had led to “widespread doubts” being cast about the integrity of the process, The Hindu reported.

“All that would be put to rest by time-stamping VVPAT slips,” his counsel told the court.

The counsel added that while the Conduct of Elections Rules require that names, serial numbers and symbols of candidates should be displayed on VVPAT slips, they do not mandate the time of voting to be recorded.

He contended that including this information would improve transparency, according to Live Law.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant remarked that while the subject of the petition pertained to electoral integrity, the specific demand raised in it involved questions of technical feasibility, which were for the Election Commission to decide.

The court disposed of the petition without passing any substantive directions. It directed the registry to forward the plea to the poll panel, which could consider it as a representation, Live Law reported.

Edited by Leah Thomas.

The Assam Assembly on Wednesday passed the Uniform Civil Code bill seeking to ban polygamy and make the registration of live-in relationships compulsory, even as the Opposition demanded that it should be sent to a select committee for scrutiny.

The passing of the 2026 Uniform Civil Code Bill paves the way for Assam to become the third state, after Uttarakhand and Gujarat, to introduce such a code after independence.

The Uniform Civil Code refers to a common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all citizens. Currently, such personal affairs of different religions are based on community-specific laws, largely derived from religious scripture.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the tribal population in the state would be kept outside the purview of the Uniform Civil Code. “It does not interfere with the religious practices of any community or traditional practices of our indigenous”, he said on social media.

The code will override personal laws and will “ensure national integration by removing disparate loyalties to law, which have contracting ideologies”, Sarma added.

The bill was tabled in the Assembly on Monday, and was taken up for consideration and passing on Wednesday. It was introduced nearly two weeks after the proposed legislation was cleared by the state Cabinet on May 13.

Today, with the passage of the #UCCAssam bill, every person from every religion across any region of Assam (except 6th schedule areas), will be equal before the law in terms of these civil matters.

I thank all NDA legislators for wholeheartedly supporting this crucial Bill. pic.twitter.com/xQrCGXedCJ

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 27, 2026

Key changes

The bill proposes to make it mandatory for live-in relationships to be registered within one month.

Failing to register a live-in relationship within one month may lead to imprisonment of up to three months or a fine of up to Rs 10,000. Concealing material facts or submitting false information while registering a live-in relationship may lead to imprisonment of up to three months and a fine up to Rs 25,000.

“[The bill] protects vulnerable individuals by declaring that any child born out of a live-in relationship is fully legitimate, and by granting a deserted live-in partner the explicit legal standing to claim financial maintenance through the courts,” a government note on the draft legislation said.

According to the draft legislation, the minimum age of marriage would be 18 years for women and 21 years for men.

The legislation will also make the registration of marriages and divorces mandatory “to prevent fraud”.

Couples will be required to submit a marriage memorandum to the sub-registrar within 60 days of the marriage ceremony. The deliberate non-registration of marriage or divorce within the two-month period may lead to a penalty of Rs 10,000.

A person making false declarations or submitting forged documents may be punished with up to three months of imprisonment or with a fine of up to Rs 25,000, or both.

The failure to register a marriage or submit a memorandum for divorce deliberately despite being served a notice by the sub-registrar to do so, may be punished with a fine of up to Rs 25,000.

The bill also codifies uniform grounds for divorce such as cruelty, desertion or mutual consent. The draft law proposes to ensure that the early childhood custody of children who are below age five “ordinarily remains with the mother”.

BJP and the Uniform Civil Code

Introducing a common personal law has long been on the BJP’s agenda and several states ruled by the party have been making advances towards implementing it.

In January 2025, BJP-ruled Uttarakhand became the first state to implement the Uniform Civil Code after independence. The Gujarat Assembly cleared a similar legislation on March 24 amid protests by the Opposition. A common civil code has been in place in Goa since the Portuguese Civil Code was adopted in 1867.

In its campaign for the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand, the BJP had mainly targeted Muslim personal law, arguing that it discriminated against women as it allows Muslim men to practice polygamy, inherit a greater share of property, initiate divorce and deny alimony.

Legal experts have said that Uttarakhand’s Uniform Civil Code is drawn primarily from Hindu personal law and could lead to the erasure of the personal law practices of minority communities.

In the run-up to the Assembly elections in Assam, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on March 29 also said that a Uniform Civil Code would be introduced in Assam if the BJP retains power in the state.

On May 4, the BJP secured its third consecutive term in Assam. Sarma was sworn in as the chief minister for the second term on May 12.

Separately, the Assembly had in November passed the 2025 Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill to ban polygamy, the practice of having more than one wife.

The legislation proposes up to seven years of imprisonment for persons convicted of polygamy. Further, those found guilty of having concealed their previous marriage can face punishment of up to ten years’ imprisonment.

The introduction of the legislation was viewed as a step towards implementing the Uniform Civil Code in the state.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday carried out searches at former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s residences in Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram as part of a money laundering investigation, reported The Hindu.

The central agency is investigating whether Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited, a private company, paid around Rs 1.7 crore to a now-defunct information technology firm run by Vijayan’s daughter, T Veena, between 2017 and 2021.

The mining company, in which the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation has 13.4% stake, had allegedly made the payments to Veena’s Exalogic Solutions with no evidence of any services rendered in return.

On Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate carried out searches at about 12 locations in the state, including the homes of his daughter and son-in-law, former minister PA Muhammad Riyas, in Kozhikode. Offices linked to Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited officials were also raided.

Exalogic Solutions had entered into a contract with the CMRL in 2017 for providing software and marketing services, The Wire reported.

The case had come to light after the income tax department carried out searches on the premises of the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited in 2023, when Vijayan was the chief minister of Kerala.

#WATCH | Thiruvananthapuram: Enforcement Directorate is conducting searches at 10 premises in Keralam, including the residences of former Chief Minister and present LoP Pinarayi Vijayan, in the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) case. pic.twitter.com/fmHZbftho0

— ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2026

The raids came a day after the Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition by CMRL seeking to quash the ED proceedings.

In a social media post, Vijayan’s son-in-law Riyas said: “We will fight till the last breath.”

Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary A Baby condemned the searches, describing them as “a targeted attack on a top Opposition leader by the Bharatiya Janata Party government”.

“Such actions will not intimidate Pinarayi Vijayan or the CPI(M),” Baby added.

He also questioned whether the new Congress-led United Democratic Front government in Kerala was complicit in the action.

The CPI(M)’s Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas also condemned the “brazen ED raids”, describing it as “yet another example of the systematic misuse of central agencies to harass and target political opponents”.

“It is clear that the Congress leadership actively encouraged the ED to target him, just as they did in the case of Arvind Kejriwal,” he added.

In the Assembly election results announced on May 4, the UDF won 102 seats in the 140-member Assembly, defeating the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front after a decade in Opposition.

#WATCH | Keralam: In protest against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid at the residences of former Chief Minister and present LoP Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI(M) workers agitate outside his residence in Kannur. pic.twitter.com/c5gc6rXMu9

— ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2026

Edited by Sneha and Nachiket Deuskar.