The Calcutta High Court on Thursday temporarily restrained the West Bengal Police from taking any coercive action against Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee in three first information reports registered against him, Live Law reported.

The interim protection has been granted till August 6, when the court will hear Banerjee’s plea seeking the quashing of multiple cases registered against him.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya directed the police not to take steps against Banerjee in connection with cases registered at Bhabanipur police station on May 27, Kalitala police station on June 1, and Bishnupur police station on June 16, The Indian Express reported.

The court also directed the state to provide a complete list of first information reports registered against Banerjee, Live Law reported.

The interim protection was granted after Banerjee alleged before the Calcutta High Court that multiple “unreasonable complaints” had been filed against him since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in West Bengal after defeating the TMC in the Assembly election in May.

His counsel said 11 FIRs had been filed against the TMC leader, including cases that were registered after Banerjee filed the petition.

Banerjee’s lawyer argued that the complaints were delayed and politically motivated, Live Law reported.

He said some FIRs pertained to allegations dating back to 2020 and questioned the delay in registering them.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state, objected to Banerjee filing a single petition seeking relief against multiple FIRs, Live Law reported.

He argued that such an omnibus petition was not maintainable and that separate petitions should be filed for each FIR.

Mehta also opposed protection against future FIRs, saying the court could not issue an advance order preventing the police from registering cases.

The court declined to grant blanket protection against future FIRs, saying that any additional FIRs would require appropriate pleadings and the concerned complainants would have to be included, The Indian Express reported.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Delhi government stated that it would not take action against participants in the youth-led protests that demanded that Dharmendra Pradhan resign as the Union education minister. However, it stated that this protection would not be extended to those with “criminal antecedents”.

The Home Department said that 13 cases had been registered by Delhi Police in connection with the protests in the capital as of 6 pm on Wednesday.

In cases where arrests or detentions had already been made, the review process for releasing those arrested will be carried out expeditiously, the Delhi government said. The home department also said does not propose to take further action against those involved in the protests.

The cases relate to the violence that broke out during the Cockroach Janta Party’s planned march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament on July 20.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the authorities to proceed with investigations in cases that have already been registered. However, it directed that no coercive action should be taken against minors and protesting students, provided they did not have any criminal antecedents. Read on.

The Lok Sabha passed a bill criminalising insults to the national song, Vande Mataram, a day after the Rajya Sabha passed the legislation. The bill will now be sent for presidential assent, after which it will become law.

The 2026 Prevention of Insults to National Honour Amendment Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha through a voice vote amid protests by Opposition MPs demanding a discussion on police action against youth protesters last week.

The bill seeks to provide Vande Mataram with the same statutory protection as the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. It states that intentionally preventing the singing of the national song, or disrupting an assembly singing it can be punished with imprisonment of up to three years, a fine or both. Read on.

The Supreme Court told the Union government to preserve the ammunition logs of the Rapid Action Force members deployed at Jantar Mantar in Delhi during the youth protests against the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations. A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant passed the order in response to petitions seeking a ban on using pellet guns to disperse crowds during protests.

Two of the petitioners, Prashant Kumar Singh and Sheikh Irshad Mansoor, said they were injured by pellets fired by security personnel during the protesters’ march to Parliament on July 20. The lead petitioner is former Intelligence Bureau Special Director Yashovardhan Azad.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that the court was “not averse to examining” the use of pellet guns during the protest, but added that the petitioners would have to show whether their use was permissible under the “graded approach”. Read on.

The decision of the Indian hockey federation to change the colour of the team’s jersey to saffron from blue has drawn criticism from social media users, including a former captain of the national team. Former hockey captain Viren Rasquinha said that the change was embarrassing, and remarked that the “legacy and identity of the Indian team has always been blue”.

The hockey federation launched the new jersey on Monday. In a social media video, the federation said that the saffron colour “symbolises courage, sacrifice and victory”. The new colours scheme has been inspired by the national flag and the rising sun, it said, adding that the new jersey “reflects new beginnings”.

Several social media users criticised the colour blue being replaced with saffron, saying that the change hurts the team’s legacy and identity. Read on.

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India’s demographic dividend of a large, youthful workforce is being unsettled by a troubled trend: even as the share of working-age Indians climbs to record highs, household savings have fallen to their lowest level in nearly two decades.

This puzzle strikes at the heart of an influential economic theory.

In 1985, Franco Modigliani won the Nobel Prize for his life-cycle hypothesis of household savings. People spread out their consumption across a lifetime: borrowing when young, saving hard through their prime working years and drawing down those savings in retirement.

On a population scale, Modigliani’s theory implies that a country’s saving rate depends less on its wealth and more on how its people are distributed across the life cycle.

A nation with a bulge of prime-age workers should save a lot. Economists Ronald Lee and Andrew Mason later sharpened this insight into what they called the “second demographic dividend”.

The first dividend – the one India routinely celebrates – is the mechanical boost to output per person that comes from a rising share of working-age people. The second is subtler and, crucially, not guaranteed. It materialises only where pensions, formal financial systems and functioning labour markets allow the instinct to save for later life to translate into real, investable wealth.

Set India’s recent data against that framework, and something clearly does not add up.

The country’s share of the working-age population has climbed steadily from around 58% at the turn of the century to nearly 65% today, and it is projected to keep rising into the 2040s.

By Modigliani’s logic, household savings should be rising in step. Instead, they have moved sharply in the opposite direction, sliding from a peak of roughly a third of disposable income around 2010 to about a fifth today.

It indicates that India’s economic growth is increasingly powered by household consumption rather than by savings channelled into productive investment, such as capital formation, industrial expansion and infrastructure development.

More Indians are working, but fewer are saving, and that gap is being bridged by borrowing. In effect, the country is forfeiting its second demographic dividend before it has had the chance to bank it.

Why isn’t the life-cycle theory working as advertised? Three explanations stand out.

The first is a missing wage dividend.

The theory assumes that middle-aged workers sit at the peak of their productivity and income. In India, real wage growth across large parts of the informal sector has been weak. Female labour force participation remains among the lowest of any major economy. A significant share of the working-age population is either underemployed or absent from the paid workforce altogether.

When a country experiences a demographic bulge, but employment is insecure, poorly paid or low-quality, households struggle to save. As consumption outpaces income, the gap is increasingly financed through borrowing.

The second is weak institutions.

Households accumulate financial resources for retirement only when they have access to credible, accessible and trusted savings instruments. In India, for instance, the Employees’ Provident Fund and Public Provident Fund are trusted, state-backed retirement instruments. However, formal pension coverage is modest and social insurance for informal workers is patchy.

Nearly 87%-90% of India’s workforce is engaged in informal employment, thus excluded from the Employees’ Provident Fund scheme. The Public Provident Fund is open to any resident Indian regardless of employment status, but voluntary participation is low, likely held back by limited financial literacy.

The third is debt-financed consumption.

Household liabilities have crept up over the same period, 2021-’25, driven by unsecured retail credit, credit cards, and consumer-durable financing, even as households financial assets, such as bank deposits and small savings, have failed to keep pace with liabilities.

This has caused net financial savings to decline, leaving households increasingly dependent on borrowing to sustain consumption.

This shift shows up clearly in regulatory concerns. In late 2023, the Reserve Bank of India expressed concern over the boom in unsecured personal loans and credit card debt. By requiring banks to hold more capital against these loans, it made such lending costlier. It sought to slow the rapid expansion of consumer credit, an indirect signal that household borrowing, and potentially spending, was outpacing income growth.

Consumption is being financed with debt rather than sustained by savings, and the domestic pool of capital available to fund investment is shrinking relative to demand. Household savings have long been India’s primary source of domestic capital, financing investments in infrastructure businesses, and industrial expansion. A structurally lower savings rate, paired with a heavier debt load, shifts the burden of financing investment onto government borrowing.

India must now earn its second demographic dividend: by increasing quality employment and female participation so that prime-age incomes peak, by building both public and private pension instruments that informal workers can trust, and by monitoring the composition of retail credit as closely as its volume.

Otherwise, India risks spending the next two decades consuming a dividend it never bothered to save for.

Neha Jain is an assistant professor (economics) at the Delhi Technological University.

Srinivas Goli is an associate professor at the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, and author of A Treatise on Families in Contemporary India. Views are personal.

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a bill criminalising insults to the national song, Vande Mataram, a day after the Rajya Sabha cleared the legislation.

The bill will now be sent for presidential assent, after which it will become law.

The 2026 Prevention of Insults to National Honour Amendment Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha through a voice vote amid protests by Opposition MPs demanding a discussion on police action against youth protesters last week.

The protests were held against the alleged mismanagement in conducting competitive exams.

The bill seeks to provide Vande Mataram with the same statutory protection as the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. It states that intentionally preventing the singing of the national song, or disrupting an assembly singing it can be punished with imprisonment of up to three years, a fine or both.

At present, the 1971 Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act provides that insulting the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, the national flag or the Constitution is punishable with up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine or both.

The bill faced opposition from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, with MP Kanimozhi accusing the government of using it to advance a “Hindutva agenda” under the cover of nationalism, ANI reported.

“This song goes against the secularism of this country,” she said, adding that the bill disrespects people from Tamil Nadu.

Responding to the debate, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said the legislation was about “Indian pride” and not against any state or ideology, the news agency reported.

He said the government respected state songs and only sought equal recognition for the national song alongside the national anthem.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused the Congress of insulting Vande Mataram by resorting to appeasement politics.

The Union government is commemorating the 150th year of Vande Mataram.

A Press Information Bureau note issued on November 6 to mark the 150 years stated that the Constituent Assembly had adopted Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem and Vande Mataram as the national song.

The note quoted Rajendra Prasad, the first president, as having told the Assembly in January 1950 that Vande Mataram, because of its role in the freedom movement, “shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it”.

On January 28, the Union home ministry directed that all six stanzas of the Vande Mataram be sung first when it is played together with the Jana Gana Mana.

Only the first two stanzas of the national song had been played at official functions earlier. The remaining stanzas, which invoke Hindu goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati, had been omitted.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Sara Varghese.

Also read: Vande Mataram debate: The novel in which the poem appears is a cry for freedom – but from whom?

The Delhi government on Thursday said it will not take any adverse legal action against those who took part in youth-led protests seeking the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union education minister, ANI reported.

However, it stated that this protection would not be extended to those with “criminal antecedents”.

The Home Department said that 13 cases had been registered by Delhi Police in connection with the protests in the national capital as of 6 PM on Wednesday.

A Delhi government press release said that in cases where arrests or detentions had already been made, the review process for releasing those arrested will be carried out expeditiously, ANI reported. The government does not propose to take any further action against those involved in the protests, and the matter “shall be treated as closed without any future proceedings on this account”, it said.

The cases relate to the violence that broke out during the Cockroach Janta Party’s planned march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament on July 20.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had allowed the authorities in Delhi and other states to proceed with investigations in cases that have already been registered.

However, it directed that no coercive action should be taken against protesting students and that minors who had been detained should be released, as long as they did not have any “criminal antecedents”.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant also directed the police authorities to preserve all surveillance camera footage, drone footage and camera recordings relating to the protests as a measure of “abundant precaution”.

The Delhi Police has identified 2,873 persons through surveillance footage with previous criminal records, The Hindu reported on Monday.

Delhi joins Bharatiya Janata Party governments in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Assam and Bihar in making similar announcements about withdrawing cases.

Also read: Two days after Bihar promise to withdraw cases, families wait anxiously for protestors’ release

Wangchuk urges Centre to honour no-FIR assurance

Earlier in the day, activist Sonam Wangchuk had called on the Union government to honour its written assurance that no legal action would be taken against students who took part in the nationwide youth protests

In a video shared on social media, Wangchuk urged the government to honour the commitments it had made to him and later to the Cockroach Janta Party, saying it had agreed that it would take “no legal action” against students who joined the demonstrations.

He urged the Centre to “remain steadfast” to its promise and help create “an environment of trust”, especially among the country’s youth.

The agitation in Delhi started on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand Pradhan’s resignation on account of alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Solidarity protests were held in several states. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.

On Monday, the Cockroach Janta Party remarked that there had been a “complete breach” of its agreement with the Union government with respect to its promise that no police action would be taken against peaceful protesters. It had warned of restarting protests if the cases were not withdrawn.

The Cockroach Janta Party also said that the Supreme Court’s Tuesday directive was “wholly unacceptable” and described it as “uninformed”.

The campaign’s spokesperson Saurav Das said that the group had a “credible apprehension” that the Union government and BJP-ruled states may “seek to use and weaponise” the order to continue filing and investigating FIRs against individual protesters and “subject them to great harassment”.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The ruling Congress in Karnataka has alleged that more than 84 lakh voters could be removed from the state’s electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision exercise “without thorough verification”, The Indian Express reported.

The party warned that genuine electors could be disenfranchised in the process.

However, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukkumar, has rejected suggestions of mass deletions, saying voters listed under the “Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others” category will not be removed automatically and that the verification process is continuing, The New Indian Express reported.

In a petition submitted to the chief electoral officer, the Congress said data from the election authorities showed that 84.31 lakh of the 5.54 crore voters mapped before the exercise had been classified for deletion on grounds including being absent, shifted, dead, duplicate or under other categories during door-to-door verification by booth-level officers, The Indian Express reported.

The figure represents about 15% of the electorate before the revision process began.

The party has called for a second round of physical verification before any names are removed from the rolls.

“Ensure that no elector is deleted merely on the basis of a single house visit or incomplete verification,” the newspaper quoted the petition as saying. “Provide adequate notice and reasonable opportunity to every affected elector before any deletion is finalised.”

According to the election office’s data, the category includes 51.74 lakh voters listed as permanently shifted, 14.99 lakh listed as dead, 11.61 lakh listed as absent, 5.62 lakh identified as duplicate entries and about 33,000 classified under other reasons.

The four electoral districts in the Greater Bengaluru Area account for nearly half of all these cases in the state.

Responding to the concerns, Anbukkumar said the names of the 84 lakh electors in the category would not be deleted automatically, The New Indian Express reported.

He added that booth-level officers and electoral registration officers could amend records even after forms had been digitised.

The Election Commission extended the deadline for the house-to-house verification exercise from July 29 to August 8.

As of Wednesday, 4.26 crore forms had been digitised, while 43.24 lakh remained pending digitisation, the state’s electoral authority said.

The draft electoral roll is due to be published on August 17, followed by the claims and objections process, with the final roll scheduled for publication on October 19.

In 2025, the first phase of the exercise was conducted in Bihar. It was extended to 12 states and Union Territories in the second phase in late 2025 and the first half of 2026.

Since it began, concerns have been raised that the revision could eliminate genuine voters from the rolls and even shape electoral outcomes, as Scroll has reported.

In May, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the revision, but said that the exercise does not mean that the Election Commission can decide on whether the person is an Indian citizen.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

A Madhya Pradesh court has acquitted 11 persons accused of rioting and arson during the communal violence that erupted during a Ram Navami procession in Khargone district in 2022, holding that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges, PTI reported.

In its judgement delivered on Monday, the court said that eight of the 11 eyewitnesses examined by the prosecution failed to identify any of the suspects, The Indian Express reported.

Communal violence broke out in Khargone on April 10, 2022 after some persons had allegedly hurled stones at a Ram Navami procession, objecting to loud and provocative music being played in the Talab Chowk area. One person was killed and at least 24 were injured in the violence. Ten houses were also burnt.

A day after the violence, the Madhya Pradesh government demolished the homes and shops of Muslims in Khargone.

The police had charged 11 persons with rioting and arson – Ibadat Ali, Sadiq Khan, Abdullah Khan, Sahab alias Shahib, Sher Yar, Faisal Khan, Azam Khan, Shabbir Khan, Imran Ali, Mushtaq Ali and Razik Ali.

The prosecution had alleged that the suspects were armed with stones, swords and petrol bombs, the newspaper reported. They allegedly set several houses on fire and vandalised properties in the Bhatwadi area.

The court noted that the police did not provide any explanation on how they selected the suspects from a mob of about 50 people. The forensic evidence collected in the case also failed to establish the alleged use of petrol bombs or any explosive substance.

The court also found the identification testimony of key witness Vaishnavi Jain unreliable, The Indian Express reported. The court noted that no test identification parade was conducted and that Jain’s statement was recorded 51 days after the incident without any satisfactory explanation from the prosecution.

A test identification parade is a procedure to determine whether a witness can accurately identify the suspect from among a group of people.

Jain had claimed that she recognised all the suspects by their faces. However, the court noted that her brother and father said that the rioters had “their faces covered with cloth”.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

A Delhi court on Thursday cancelled the non-bailable warrant issued against student leader Aishe Ghosh in connection with a 2021 case about a protest outside Bangla Bhavan after she appeared before the court, Live Law reported.

The Patiala House Court cancelled the warrant after the Students’ Federation of India joint secretary appeared in person.

Judicial Magistrate First Class Vijayshree Rathore also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on Ghosh before cancelling the warrant.

On Wednesday, the court stayed the non-bailable warrant after Ghosh’s lawyer said she had been unable to attend the previous hearing because of unavoidable circumstances and directed her to appear in person.

The case relates to a first information report registered at Barakhamba Road Police Station in 2021 about a protest held outside Bangla Bhavan.

Ghosh has been booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to disobedience of an order issued by a public servant, criminal trespass and common intention. A chargesheet has already been filed in the case, PTI reported.

The matter has been listed for further proceedings on November 21.

The development follows allegations by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday that the Delhi Police attempted to arrest Ghosh at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi in connection with the case.

The party said police officers arrived in a private vehicle and that one officer was not in uniform. It said the officers left without making an arrest after Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas questioned them.

“This brazen intrusion into a political party office and the continuing witch hunt against student protesters expose the Modi government's escalating assault on democratic rights,” the party had said.

The Students’ Federation of India is the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Union Minister JP Nadda subsequently said that the Delhi Police had acted in accordance with the rules and added that “any student who is into activism will have to face such a situation”, NDTV reported.

“I have been a student activist and I was arrested several times from the classroom during the Emergency under Congress rule,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The decision of the Indian hockey federation to change the colour of the team’s jersey to saffron from blue has drawn criticism, with former captain Viren Rasquinha describing the change as embarrassing.

“The legacy and identity of the Indian team has always been blue,” he said on social media on Wednesday. “I wore the blue jersey with pride for many years. Fans want to see our Indian team in blue. What is the logic of orange?”

The hockey federation launched the new jersey on Monday. In a social media video, the federation said that the saffron colour “symbolises courage, sacrifice and victory”.

The new colours scheme has been inspired by the national flag and the rising sun, it said, adding that the new jersey “reflects new beginnings”.

Several social media users criticised the colour blue being replaced with saffron, saying that the change hurts the team’s legacy and identity.

India has traditionally had blue as the colour of the primary jersey. The country’s sports teams are often called by fans as the “men in blue” or “women in blue”.

Following the backlash, Hockey India said on Thursday that the change had been made following consultations with players and the staff because of technical requirements.

Presenting the new India jersey! 🇮🇳

Every stitch tells a story. Every pattern, every colour carries India's pride.

Our teams are ready to once again do the country proud at the FIH Hockey World Cup Belgium & Netherlands 2026.

🎥: Select 2 (SD+HD)+ Khel & JioHotstar
🗓️: August… pic.twitter.com/8GvwbByapq

— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) July 27, 2026

The collar of the new jersey is blue, alongside thin saffron, white and green stripes on the shoulders.

The jersey also has darker patterns to “celebrate India’s rich cultural heritage”. The federation said that the change “embodies the spirit of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat”. One India, Supreme India.

The new jersey was launched ahead of the men’s and women’s world cup in Belgium and the Netherlands in August.

On Thursday, Rasquinha, who played for India between 2002 and 2008, said that he was “seeing many unnecessary political comments” on his remarks and that he did not want to get into it. “My simple and humble point is on pride, identity and legacy,” he added.

India is to hockey what Argentina is to football, he said. “Will we ever see Argentina wearing orange and white stripes as their 1st jersey?” the former hockey player asked.

The Argentine football team’s traditional colours are blue and white stripes.

Change made after consulting players and staff, says federation

Hockey India said that the decision to change the colour was based on recommendations made by the support staff and the players, and consultations with them.

The primary consideration was technical, the federation said, adding that it had been observed that the blue jersey “tended to blend/merge with the blue synthetic playing surface, which is now the standard colour of international hockey pitches”.

The visual similarity affected on-field clarity and visibility for the players, Hockey India said.

“In light of the above, the coaches and players suggested alternative colours such as yellow or saffron,” it added. “…Apart from addressing the technical requirement, saffron also holds deep significance as one of the colours of our national flag…”

The federation also said that the change in jersey colour was not unprecedented in Indian hockey. During the 2014 world cup, the team’s jersey colour had been changed to yellow. During the 2018 edition of the tournament, the colour was changed to sky blue.

In the 2019 men’s cricket world cup, the Indian team wore an alternate jersey, which was mostly orange, for its match against home team England. The change was in line with the International Cricket Council’s regulation at the time requiring designated away kits.

The change had led to criticism by fans and Opposition leaders alleging that it was an attempt to “saffronise the entire country”.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Forty-seven sanitation workers died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks across India in 2025, the Union government said on Wednesday.

Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of deaths at 10, followed by Haryana with seven and Tamil Nadu with six, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said in response to an MP’s question.

Manual scavenging – the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewer lines or septic tanks – is banned under the 2013 Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act. However, the practice remains prevalent in several parts of the country.

Responding to a question on the effectiveness of existing laws, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said that the scheme was evaluated in 2025. He added that it provides sanitation workers with safety equipment, occupational training, health insurance and financial support to promote mechanisation of the process.

The government said that states and Union Territories have been asked to ensure that the 2013 law is implemented.. It also noted that the Union housing and urban affairs ministry had issued standard operating procedures for cleaning sewers and septic tanks.

In July 2023, the Union social justice ministry’s Central Monitoring Committee claimed that the practice of manual scavenging had been eliminated. The ministry had made the claim despite noting that only 520 of the 766 districts across the country are free of manual scavenging.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Union government to preserve the ammunition logs of the Rapid Action Force members deployed at Jantar Mantar in Delhi during the youth protests against the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations, The Indian Express reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was hearing petitions seeking a ban on the use of pellet guns to disperse crowds during protests.

Two of the petitioners, Prashant Kumar Singh and Sheikh Irshad Mansoor, said they were injured by pellets fired by security personnel during the protesters’ march to Parliament on July 20. The lead petitioner is former Intelligence Bureau Special Director Yashovardhan Azad.

While hearing the plea, the court verbally observed that the petitioners’ request was “vague” as they had not challenged the police regulations permitting the use of pellet guns for crowd control, Live Law reported.

Police regulations permit the use of pellet guns in exceptional circumstances, Live Law quoted Bagchi as saying. He added that unless those regulations are challenged, the reliefs sought could be barred.

Bagchi said that the court was “not averse to examining” the use of pellet guns during the protest, but added that the petitioners would have to show whether their use was permissible under the “graded approach”.

Appearing for the petitioners, lawyer Vrinda Grover said that the regulations are not readily available in the public domain and requested the court to direct the Union government to place them on record so the petitioners could amend their prayers.

“I could not find any such standing order of the Delhi Police at all,” the legal news outlet quoted her as saying.

Grover also clarified that she was confining her challenge to the alleged use of “metallic pellets” and was not questioning whether pellet guns should form part of the Rapid Action Force’s armoury.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that he would do whatever was necessary to assist the court.

Before adjourning the matter, the bench passed an interim order directing the Delhi government to provide adequate medical treatment to the injured petitioners and other protesters undergoing treatment.

Pellet guns unfit for dispersing civilians, contend petitioners

The petitioners contended before the Supreme Court that projectile action guns are unfit for dispersing peaceful gatherings and that the use of such weapons should be banned when security personnel are dealing with civilians.

They argued that given the “sporadic and unpredictable nature” of the trajectory of pellets once fired, the weapon is an “unreasonable, arbitrary and dangerous tool unfit for deployment against civilian assemblies for the purpose of their dispersal”.

“Although such guns are classified as ‘less lethal’ or ‘non-lethal’ alternatives to general firearms, when fired into a large crowd from close proximity, it has the propensity to cause fatal and grievous injuries, especially to vital organs,” the petitioners said.

Youth protests

The agitation in Delhi began on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union education minister at the time, over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.

On July 20, thousands joined the protest two days after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike for three weeks, to hospital. Their march to Parliament was met with a crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet guns against the demonstrators.

The police action turbocharged the agitation, which spread to other parts of the country.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

After thousands of protesting farmers marched towards Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s residence in Bhopal, the Bharatiya Janata Party government on Wednesday increased the procurement limit for moong to 60% from 25% of the state’s estimated crop.

The farmers were demanding 100% procurement of moong at the minimum support price.

Farmer organisations have said that while the Union government has announced full procurement of tur, urad and masur, moong continues to be procured under the price support scheme, in which purchases are capped at 25% of a state’s estimated production, The Indian Express reported.

They argued that the ceiling forces farmers to sell much of their harvest in the open market at prices below the minimum support price.

The agitation began on Monday, when farmers from 19 organisations under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha began a march towards Bhopal from Sethani Ghat in Narmadapuram 75 km away.

On Wednesday, they breached police barricades at several locations in the state capital before reaching Polytechnic Square, which is less than a km from the chief minister’s residence. The authorities blocked their march with buses and additional barricades.

Later in the day, the government announced the decision after talks between the farmer representatives and Agriculture Minister Aidal Singh Kansana.

The Union government had earlier agreed to procure 4.5 lakh metric tonnes of moong from Madhya Pradesh at the minimum support price of Rs 8,780 per quintal for the 2026-’27 marketing season. The quantity amounts to about 25% of the state’s estimated production of 20.1 lakh metric tonnes.

Announcing the revised procurement limit, Kansana said that it would be implemented immediately.

“In districts like Narmadapuram, Sehore, and Harda, this will amount to around three quintals per acre,” The Hindu quoted Kansana as saying. “The decision will be implemented immediately, and efforts will be made to benefit the maximum number of farmers.”

The minister also said that while the deadline for booking procurement slots had been extended to August 10, the procurement period had been extended till August 20.

The state government also suspended the e-token system for fertiliser distribution, addressing another key demand of the protesters. Farmers had complained that technical glitches in the online system made it difficult to obtain fertilisers during the sowing season.

Kansana said that a high-level committee headed by the chairperson of the Agricultural Production Commission would review the system and recommend changes.

However, farmer leaders said that the government’s move was an aim to “pacify” the protest, The Hindu reported.

“This is a lollipop to end the movement because of the Datia election,” The Hindu quoted farmer representative Subodh Raikhere as saying. “We stand by our demand of 100% procurement.”

The Datia Assembly constituency will vote in the bye-elections on Thursday.

Raikhere said that the protesters would continue to camp in Bhopal and decide their next course of action after consulting all 19 participating organisations.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The number of cyber fraud cases registered in India nearly tripled to 29,758 in 2024 from 10,395 in 2020, according to data shared by the Union government in Parliament.

Among the different categories of cyber fraud reported in 2024, online banking fraud accounted for the highest number of cases at 4,659.

Credit and debit card fraud accounted for the second-highest number of cases at 3,829, followed by marketing or investment fraud at 3,044, ATM fraud at 1,659, fraud calls at 1,264, gaming app or website fraud at 1,019, OTP fraud at 965 and e-wallet or UPI fraud at 723.

The government said that separate data on gaming app or website fraud, marketing or investment fraud, fraud calls, and e-wallet or UPI fraud has been maintained only since 2024.

Telangana recorded the highest number of cyber fraud cases in 2024 at 18,922. It was followed by Bihar with 4,020 and Maharashtra with 2,827 cases.

The government said the National Crime Records Bureau does not maintain data on the amount of money lost or recovered in cyber fraud cases.

The Union home ministry said that it has set up the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre to tackle cyber crimes. The Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, launched in 2021, enables immediate reporting of financial fraud to help prevent funds from being siphoned off.

The fraud reporting system had helped save more than Rs 11,158 crore from 32.8 lakh complaints as of June 30, the government added.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read: Indians lost Rs 22,845 crore to cyber fraud in 2024, a 206% rise from previous year: Centre

An ​examination by aircraft manufacturer Boeing did not find any abnormalities in the fuel control switch ​of an Air India 787 Dreamliner plane, the Union government told Parliament on Monday, after the airline’s pilots on ⁠a London-Bengaluru flight flagged ​a possible defect in February.

The aircraft was grounded after the crew reported that the left fuel control switch slipped from “run” to “cut off” when pushed slightly and did not lock in the selected position.

Fuel control switches have also been under scrutiny following the June 2025 crash of Air India flight AI171 in Ahmedabad.

The Boeing 787-8 aircraft, which was en route to London’s Gatwick airport from Ahmedabad, crashed 33 seconds after taking off on June 12, 2025. There were 242 persons aboard the aircraft. One passenger survived with impact injuries. Nineteen persons were killed on the ground after the aircraft crashed into the hostel building of the BJ Medical College and Hospital in Ahmedabad.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, which is investigating the crash, found in its preliminary report in July 2025, that moments after the aircraft took off, its fuel control switches transitioned from “run” to “cut off” within a second of each other, because of which both engines shut down.

The report said that one of the pilots could be heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he shut down the fuel, in response to which the other pilot said that he did not.

After about 10 seconds, the switches went back to the “run” position, in what appeared to be an attempt by the pilots to regain thrust in the engines. Subsequently, one of the engines progressed to recovery, and deceleration stopped. But deceleration could not be stopped on the second engine.

In a reply filed in the Rajya Sabha, the government said that, as part of continued airworthiness measures, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation directed original equipment manufacturer-level testing of the fuel control switch locking mechanism at Boeing’s facility in Seattle, United States.

“Detailed examination of fuel control switch including structural integrity of fuel control switch detents was carried out and no abnormality was observed,” the government said. “However, further inspection of complete ‘thrust control module’ at [original equipment manufacturer] facility is underway.”

The question in the Rajya Sabha also sought to know whether the pilots’ conduct was among the causes examined for the crash, as reported by international media. It also asked why the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s final report had not been released more than a year after the accident.

In its reply, the government said that “all probable causes and contributing factors leading to the accident are being investigated”.

It also added that there has been no delay in the investigation.

“The timeline for a major accident investigation cannot be predicted, as it depends on several factors and is an evolving process involving multiple variables,” the government said.

In July, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau had told the Supreme Court that the probe is expected to be completed within about six weeks and the draft final report may be ready by October.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed a 2021 office memorandum that created a mechanism for the Union government to grant environmental clearances to projects that had commenced operations without obtaining an approval, Live Law reported.

The court held that the government cannot introduce such a scheme through an administrative order.

It also noted that the government has the power to provide for retrospective environmental clearances through a statutory notification issued under the 1986 Environment Protection Act.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, in a unanimous verdict, held that the judgement would apply prospectively, meaning that the projects that had been given post-facto environmental clearances will not be affected.

The bench also said that the Union government has power under the Environment Protection Act to issue notifications that would allow certain categories of projects that began without getting an environmental clearance to obtain a retrospective approval in the larger public interest, PTI reported.

The projects include the AIIMS Medical College and Hospital building in Odisha, the Centre of Excellence for Cancer Diseases in Tamil Nadu, the Vijayapura airport in Karnataka, slum rehabilitation projects and irrigation projects intended for drought-prone areas.

The court said the 2021 office memorandum was an administrative order that created a perpetual mechanism to grant environmental clearances to projects that were undertaken without obtaining clearance, PTI reported.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi, who authored the verdict, said that the “perpetual amnesty scheme” that is applicable to all projects does not set any criteria for which projects can qualify to seek post-facto clearance, the news agency reported.

The court added that the office memorandum failed the tests of proportionality and reasonableness and violated Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution that guarantee the right to equality and the right to life, including the right to a clean environment.

It also directed that no fresh applications for retrospective environmental clearance under a 2017 notification or the 2021 office memorandum should be entertained.

In April, the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on 49 petitions in the matter after hearing the matter for six days.

In November, the Supreme Court reversed its earlier ruling that had barred the government from granting environmental clearances to projects after they had already begun.

In a 2:1 decision at the time, the court recalled its May 2025 judgement that declared such post-facto approvals illegal. The November verdict allowed the government to once again consider granting environmental clearances to projects retrospectively.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The government’s recurring policy response is to deal with institutional failures as software problems. The assumption is that securing the platform, digitising the database and centralising management under technocrats will solve social problems. Therefore, let us bring in the master engineer to re-code the system.

Similarly, the government has now constituted a “high-powered task force” headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to recommend examination reforms. It follows nearly two months of protests by students and youngsters against the leak of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate medical courses.

This approach conflates logistical efficiency with social equity.

It is a manifestation of a deep, chronic flaw in the ruling establishment’s imagination that socio-political crises can be engineered away through top-down, technocratic management.

Lessons from Aadhaar

India’s Aadhaar experiment supplies ample empirical evidence of why a purely technocratic approach to education and examinations is dangerous. In 2009, when Nilekani was brought in to build Aadhaar, the promise was similar: a frictionless, fraud-proof, digital architecture that would eliminate corruption and streamline the welfare state.

Instead, it was a classic case of technocratic hubris. Aadhaar’s real-world implementation subordinated human rights to digital server uptime while storing vast amounts of personal data in leaky systems.

Economists Reetika Khera and Jean Drèze have pointed out that welfare systems are vulnerable to two types of errors: inclusion errors (fake/duplicate beneficiaries) and exclusion errors (genuine beneficiaries being turned away). Technocratic solutions are obsessively engineered to catch the former while ignoring the catastrophic damage of the latter.

Research and reporting by civil society groups like Rethink Aadhaar have documented thousands of cases where elderly citizens, manual labourers with worn fingertips, or rural households in connectivity blindspots were denied basic rations and pensions because an Electronic Point of Sale machine failed to authenticate their identity. In the government’s dashboard, these were recorded as “savings” or “elimination of ghost beneficiaries.” In reality, as Drèze and Khera demonstrated, these were often cases of forced starvation and state denial of legal rights.

Technocratic solutions shift the burden of proof onto the vulnerable.

When digital systems fail, citizens are forced to stand in endless queues, lose pay to visit Aadhaar centres and authenticate their identity multiple times. The State abdicates responsibility by blaming the “system”.

The core flaw of the Nilekani doctrine is its ideological blindness. It views human, social, and political relationships as plain transactional data pipelines. But when you consider citizens as data points, you build systems that are technologically sleek yet socially brutal. To unleash this exact philosophy onto the country’s education and examination ecosystem is to misdiagnose the disease entirely.

What is an exam in India?

To the urban elite and technology executives, an examination is a logistical exercise, a mechanism to sort and filter candidates using secure algorithms.

But for India’s large population of poor and socially disadvantaged, examinations are a ladder of social mobility. Indian society is fractured by caste, class, and regional inequality. Public competitive exams represent one of the few spaces where a poor child can legitimately dream of climbing out of historical marginalisation.

In that context, an examination paper leak breaks the fragile social contract between the republic and its youth. The crisis of Indian examinations is much more than a failure of encryption and server security: it is a crisis driven by three political and socio-economic factors:

The first is the hyper-centralisation of education and exams. This is seen in the collapse of diverse, state-level educational contexts into monolithic, all-India mega-exams managed by an opaque, bureaucratic apparatus – the National Testing Agency).

The second is the wild west of commercial coaching. This multi-billion-dollar shadow education industry feeds on student anxiety, colludes with corrupt officials and demands – often exorbitant – payment for access to practice question papers.

The third is institutional erosion. Over the years, there has been a systematic destruction of university autonomy, the politicisation of educational appointments, while public education has been hollowed out. In the midst of this, millions of students gamble their youth and future on a single three-hour test.

Can encryption solve the predatory pressure of coaching hubs? Can an algorithm restore the shattered autonomy of state universities? Can a technocrat understand the desperation of a student sleeping on a cot in a cramped room in the coaching hub of Kota?

Main stakeholders missing

The high-powered task force is populated by tech billionaires, rocket scientists, intelligence chiefs and senior bureaucrats.

Conspicuously absent are primary stakeholders from the very sector that the committee is tasked with reforming: education. Where are the educationists who understand pedagogy, child psychology and the philosophy of assessment? The university professors who teach in non-elite, tier-2 and tier-3 colleges? Where are scholars who understand how caste, gender and other disparities shape exam outcomes?

The assembled panel reveals the prime minister’s worldview where India’s youth are not partners in a democratic dialogue, but potential suspects in a security operation. Instead of humanising or democratising education, the goal is to police it better.

What would democratic reform look like?

Fixing India’s examination system and restoring trust must start with abandoning technocratic solutions and embracing a democratic and pedagogical reimagining of Indian education, as experts, scholars and activists have been saying for years.

Instead of technocracy, reform must be through inclusion. Rather than a closed committee of bureaucrats and technocrats, the government should institute a commission comprising veteran educationists, public university faculty, student representatives, state-level examination board heads and civil society advocates.

Policy must be drafted through public hearings across different states, listening to the experiences of students and parents. Reform must make public institutions and office bearers accountable to Parliament.

Decentralisation must be the next focus. The policy of “One Nation, One Exam” has failed spectacularly. The concentration of power and control over question papers in a single central body has created obvious risks of a single point of failure while inviting massive corruption. Federal balance must be restored by empowering state universities and regional education boards to conduct assessments tailored to local contexts and reduce the stakes and panic surrounding national mega-tests.

Finally, there must be a pedagogical overhaul moving away from rote learning and marks-based ranks. India’s education system puts a premium on rote memorisation, which makes question papers prone to being easily leaked.

Assessment needs to shift toward continuous evaluation, critical thinking, open-book frameworks and multi-stage qualitative evaluation that cannot be gamified by coaching centres and bought through leaked answer keys.

Bringing a technocrat to solve a social problem is a mistake. Nilekani may be a brilliant manager of corporate systems and digital infrastructure, but education is not a software platform.

This moment should instead be used to take education out of the hands of technocrats and return it to the democratic conscience of the nation and its future – the youngsters and students who protested on the streets of India demanding fairness and dignity.

Pius Fozan is a photojournalist and an advisor at the Political Tech Summit.

Pius Fozan is a photojournalist and an advisor at the Political Tech Summit.

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed a bill criminalising insults to the national song, Vande Mataram.

The 2026 Prevention of Insults to National Honour Amendment Bill was passed in the Upper House by voice vote as the Opposition protested and shouted slogans demanding a response from Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the police action against protesters seeking educational reforms last week.

#MonsoonSession

Rajya Sabha passes The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026.@nityanandraibjp @AmitShah @HMOIndia pic.twitter.com/lD7qstyY05

— SansadTV (@sansad_tv) July 29, 2026

The bill, which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, seeks to accord Vande Mataram the same statutory protection as the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. It states that intentionally preventing the singing of the national song, or causing disturbance to an assembly singing it can be punished with imprisonment of up to three years, a fine or both.

At present, the 1971 Act provides that insulting the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, the national flag or the Constitution is punishable with up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine or both.

During a discussion on the amendment on Wednesday, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai accused the Congress of insulting Vande Mataram by resorting to appeasement politics, PTI reported.

Rai said that “Vande Mataram” were the last words uttered by several freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives during the independence movement.

“One cannot understand the Congress’ opposition to Vande Mataram,” PTI quoted the minister as saying. “The country’s youth are watching and the people of the country will teach them a lesson.”

The Union government is commemorating the 150th year of Vande Mataram.

A Press Information Bureau note issued on November 6 to mark the 150 years stated that the Constituent Assembly had adopted Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem and Vande Mataram as the national song.

The note quoted Rajendra Prasad, the first president, as having told the Assembly in January 1950 that Vande Mataram, because of its role in the freedom movement, “shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it”.

On January 28, the Union home ministry directed that all six stanzas of the Vande Mataram be sung first when it is played together with the Jana Gana Mana.

Only the first two stanzas of the national song had been played at official functions earlier. The remaining stanzas, which invoke Hindu goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati, had been omitted.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

Also read: Vande Mataram debate: The novel in which the poem appears is a cry for freedom – but from whom?

The Kerala Police have registerd a first information report against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member TG Mohandas for saying that he “would have shot” protesters in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar if he had been in charge of law and order, The Hindu reported on Wednesday.

On Monday, the state government had ordered a police investigation into the remarks.

The case was filed by the Thiruvananthapuram City Cyber Police under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to provocation with intent to cause a riot and statements conducing to public mischief, and under provisions of the Information Technology Act and Kerala Police Act.

On Sunday, Mohandas had said in a YouTube video that if he had been tasked with handling the demonstrations, he would have imposed a curfew in the Jantar Mantar area, which is a designated protest site. The RSS member said he would then make three announcements for the crowd to disperse.

“After that, I will shoot,” he was quoted as saying by The Hindu. “People will scatter away and run for their lives. Some may die, some may suffer disabilities. Within four hours, the situation will be calm. Then I will collect the bodies and take them to hospitals.”

The video was posted on his YouTube channel Pathrika a day after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as the Union education minister in response to protests against the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations.

In another video, Mohandas was alleged to have said: “Police should be withdrawn from the area, and it should be left to the protesters. Rapes and murders will happen. There will not be complaints about rape, because they like rape.”

The RSS, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, distanced itself from Mohandas’ comments on Tuesday. It claimed that Mohandas was not an official of the organisation and that the political commentator’s views had been made in personal capacity.

Nevertheless, the remarks elicited sharp criticism in Kerala across political lines.

The Congress, which leads the state’s coalition government, stated that the “vile statement” by Mohandas was proof of the RSS’ “disgusting, violent and misogynistic mindset”. The RSS “has always provided shelter to such people”, the party alleged.

Left leader and Rajya Sabha MP AA Rahim told The Hindu that Mohandas’s remarks will be “dealt with politically and legally”.

The agitation in Delhi began on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Pradhan from his post over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.

On July 20, thousands joined the protest two days after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike for three weeks, to hospital. Their march to Parliament was met with a crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet guns against the demonstrators.

The police action turbocharged the agitation, which spread to other parts of the country.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

Follow Scroll’s coverage of the youth protests here

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday demanded that Union Home Minister Amit Shah must be removed from his post, alleging that he was responsible for “the brutality carried out against students” during their protest in Delhi on July 20.

Gandhi also demanded an investigation by a Supreme Court-monitored high-powered committee into violence against those protesting against the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations.

The Congress leader noted that the Delhi Police and the central armed police forces report to the home minister.

“There are only two possibilities: either he [Shah] gave the order to shoot people with pellet guns, to beat people with lathis with nails and to use electric batons; or he didn’t know it was happening,” Gandhi said at a press conference. “If he didn’t know it was happening, he is incompetent. If he knew, then he is culpable. In either case, he has to go.”

There are only two possibilities.

🔵 Home Minister Amit Shah gave the order to use pellet guns, beat people with lathis, and use electric batons.

🔵 Amit Shah did not know what was happening. If that is the case, it is incompetence.

👉 In either case, he needs to go.

: LoP… pic.twitter.com/ZnS6Oip8Er

— Congress (@INCIndia) July 29, 2026

Earlier in the day, while speaking in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi had alleged that Shah had “authorised the shooting of our students” during the nationwide youth protests.

“He put the pellets into the blood of our students,” the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said. “He ordered the students of India to be shot.”

His remarks triggered protests in the House, leading to an adjournment.

Following this, Gandhi said that he would address a press conference to share what he was “not allowed to say in the House”.

“They can turn off the mic - but not the students’ echo,” he said.

The agitation in Delhi began on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Pradhan from his post over alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.

On July 20, thousands joined the protest two days after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike for three weeks, to hospital. Their march to Parliament was met with a crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet guns against the demonstrators.

A day after the pellet guns were fired, the Delhi Police had denied using the weapon against the protesters. However, reports said that the pellet guns had been carried by the Rapid Action Force, a unit of the Central Reserve Police Force that was also deployed at the protest, as part of its riot-control equipment.

The police in the national capital and the Central Reserve Police Force report to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

The police action turbocharged the agitation, which spread to other parts of the country.

Written by Neerad Pandharipande. Edited by Sara Varghese

Narayanan R stood on the muddy bund of the Great Salt Lake, watching a group of flamingoes pick their way across the shallows. He remembered standing in the same spot as a 10-year-old, knee-deep in water – the day his father showed him how to fish. “The flamingoes may not come next season,” he said. “These pools will dry soon.

A few hundred metres away, Gowriamma waded through the shallow waters of the lake, her fingers sifting through the mud for shrimp. “Everything depends on these small pools. We know this water through the mud and the thorns.”

Located between Nemmeli and Kovalam in Chennai, the Great Salt Lake also known as Kovalam-Nemmeli backwaters, is a coastal wetland that spans 5,000 acres. The Tamil Nadu government plans to convert this coastal wetland into Chennai’s sixth drinking water reservoir: the Mamallan reservoir.

Chennai currently supplies between 700 and 800 million litres per day of water. The demand already exceeds 1,100 MLD and is projected to cross 2,500 MLD by 2035, according to the project’s environmental impact assessment. The Mamallan reservoir aims to supply 170 MLD for the city’s needs. The reservoir is designed to store 1.65 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) in a single filling and an annual storage of 2.25 TMC.

However, for Narayanan, Gowriamma and many fishing families in the area, losing the Great Salt Lake means losing the only world they have ever known. “Who are we to change the contours drawn by nature?” Narayanan asks.

While the wetland falls under the Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department, these backwaters have long functioned as a fishing ground, a seasonal habitat and a flood buffer.

On January 19, 2026, the foundation stone was laid for the reservoir project. Since then fishing communities in the area have been opposing and protesting the move. In May, the Tamil Nadu state elections resulted in a new government, raising hope for the communities. So, on June 16, fishing communities from the nearby villages gathered at the Kovalam fish market to oppose the project and called for the new government to scrap it. But the project remains underway.

A landscape built by tides

Drive about 35 kilometres south from Chennai on the East Coast Road and you reach the Kovalam-Nemmeli backwaters or the Great Salt Lake. It is not a lake in the conventional sense. It is an ecotone – a living transition zone where freshwater and saltwater meet, sustaining a unique ecology. “Twice a day, seawater from the Bay of Bengal pushes through two inlets, Muttukadu and Kokilamedu, and spreads across the wetland,” Narayanan said. “Twice a day, it recedes.”

The Buckingham Canal connected to the wetland carries surplus water from the catchment toward the sea. Mangroves and salt marshes in the area buffer the coastline from storm surges.

Nemmeli is recognised as one of 141 priority wetlands under the Tamil Nadu Wetlands Mission. Yet, over the years, the coastline has faced pressure from pollution, sewage discharge and desalination infrastructure.

A 100 million litres per day-(MLD) desalination plant commissioned in 2013 caused sea erosion and salinity intrusion, according to marine conservationists. A second plant followed in 2024, and a third is under construction nearby. And now comes the Mamallan reservoir.

In February 2026, a group of 22 ecologists, hydrologists and ornithologists wrote a letter warning the then Chief Minister MK Stalin that the project could irreversibly damage a critical coastal wetland. The EIA ran for three months, from April to June 2025, missing the monsoon entirely. This is when the wetland’s hydrological character is most visible, and its migratory birds arrive, the conservationists critiqued.

Elango Lakshmanan, faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, who has also been on monitoring committees on government projects, said, “The EIA [environmental impact assessment] has to be a year-long monitoring and should reference data over 50 years, to account for fluctuations in weather.”

Naturalist Yuvan Aves, part of the group that wrote the opposition letter, has surveyed birds here since 2017. He questioned the ecological basis for locating a reservoir in a coastal wetland. “The biggest conflict is between what’s written in a document and the ecological reality. There is no precedent of a reservoir by a coastal wetland,” he said.

More clarity needed on flood control

The villages west of the Old Mahabalipuram Road, adjacent to the planned reservoir site, flood during the northeast monsoon. The environmental impact assessment for the project identifies three reasons for the flooding: high raised bunds on the salt pans obstruct drainage of floodwater, inadequate outlets along the Old Mahabalipuram Road, and the Kelambakkam-Kovalam Link Road blocking a major floodplain.

The reservoir project proposes to address the first issue by removing bunds and installing peripheral drains. The reservoir addresses only one of the three causes of flooding identified in its own assessment, and not the most important ones, notes a study by non-profit Suzhal Arivom, which works on environmental education.

The risk assessment of the environmental impact assessment acknowledges the possibility of “overtopping, bund breach, flooding of downstream zones, or spillway failure” during heavy rainfall. Its mitigation response is limited to “proper maintenance of outlet regulators.” It also does not model how the freshwater-saltwater interface will behave if the wetland’s tidal connection is severed.

Deepak Venkatachalam, the founder of Suzhal Arivom, draws parallels with a 2021 proposal to build a reservoir in the Pallikaranai marshland, which was dropped after experts questioned its ecological viability. “If construction continues at Nemmeli, it will face the same disaster Pallikaranai narrowly avoided,” he said.

However, Vijayaraj B, the newly elected MLA for Thiruporur constituency where this project falls, said he has heard all the concerns from fishing communities. “Fishermen have warned me that obstructing waterways could cause flooding. The documents don’t clearly explain the mitigation. We have asked the Water Resources Department for a detailed plan, with clear solutions. Once I have it, I will personally meet the people and explain.”

Coastal reservoir and groundwater recharge

For a reservoir to recharge groundwater, its bed must be above the groundwater level to allow downward flow, and it must be sufficiently permeable. The environmental impact assessment notes that the reservoir site is underlain by low-permeability clay and clayey loam. Water stored in such soils generally does not percolate effectively, making groundwater recharge hydrologically challenging.

The salinity picture is equally concerning. A 2022 study published in the journal Hydrogeology by researchers from IIT Madras found seawater intrusion already extending 700 metres inland along the coastline. Sand dunes that once acted as natural recharge zones and kept saltwater at bay, have been flattened by the East Coast Road.

“If there is so much risk for salinity intrusion, what’s the point of creating a freshwater reservoir here?” asked Venkatachalam. “Water moves as per the gradient. It remembers its ways.”

The environmental cost-benefit analysis of the environmental impact assessment contains only a single note: “Not recommended for scoping stage.”

“For a project that will permanently convert a coastal wetland, an EIA failed to weigh the losses against gains. This is not just a procedural oversight but a fundamental failure of the system,” said Saravanan K, a conservationist.

What the EIA left out

Thousands of people in the fishing villages of Thiruvidanthai, Nemmeli, Pattipulam and neighbouring villages depend on this wetland for their daily income. Yet the EIA mentions fishers only once, noting that construction may affect “fish and prawn populations until natural hydrology is restored.”

It does not estimate how many people depend on the wetland or how their livelihoods may change after its conversion.

Residents in the nearby villages fish in shallow tidal pools and floodplains that appear and recede with the tides, collecting shrimp, crabs and fish by hand. These brackish shallows also serve as nursery grounds for juvenile fish, shellfish and shrimp larvae used as live bait in deep-sea fishing. Field observations by Suzhal Arivom at the adjacent Muttukadu estuary, documented 13 species actively nursing juveniles in this coastal system.

“Destroying these tidal pools does not just affect a small group of fishers,” said Narayanan. “It breaks the entire breeding cycle that sustains the offshore fishery as well.”

Vijayaraj assured that the Water Resources Department was working on a compensation plan for a few fishers who depend on these tidal pools for about three months, October, November, and December. “WRD will issue ID cards to the affected fishers for continued access to the wetland,” he said.

This however, isn’t the first time families here have been displaced. Several families had relocated to this coastline after the Kalpakkam nuclear plant pushed them from their homes further south, Narayanan said. “It is the same story all over again,” he added.

Impacts on birds

Every winter, thousands of birds travelling the Central Asian Flyway visit this coastline. The Wildlife Institute of India has identified the backwater site as an Important Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Area, one of only 107 nationally. The environmental impact assessment recorded 102 bird species and flagged potential impacts on wading species.

Yuvan Aves explained what that means in practice. “Shallow brackish water is very ecologically rich,” he said. “Depth and salinity matter a lot for waders. Many birds are so tiny that they cannot wade in deep water. Flamingoes, too, can walk only in ankle-deep water. The proposed reservoir will raise water levels to three metres during the monsoon. The mudflats will be gone.”

“If the salinity changes,” he said, “the birds won’t come.”

The environmental impact assessment proposes converting abandoned salt pans into habitat, and constructing six artificial islands within the reservoir, noting that it will act as “will act as roosting and feeding region to the aquatic birds.”

However, a study by Suzhal Arivom argues these measures are ecologically unviable, noting that migratory waterbirds often return to the same foraging sites year after year; and that salt pans are hypersaline and so cannot replicate the habitat of a wetland.

“Most species rely on specific low water levels for foraging. Shorebirds and waders are physically constrained by their leg and bill lengths; even a slight increase in depth can submerge their feeding grounds. Maintaining natural, shallow brackish waters is critical for the conservation of Nemmeli’s avifauna. Any alterations do not merely change the landscape; they may lead to rapid habitat abandonment and the hyper-localised extinction of bird populations,” notes Yuvan Aves.

“Most wetland birds exhibit strong site fidelity, as in, they return to the exact same foraging patches year after year. Also, if a bird population is displaced forcibly, it can lead to inter-species conflict and starvation.”

No alternative sites were considered

“No other alternative site examined for storage of water.” This is how the environmental impact assessment addresses whether other sites were considered for water storage.

“This is a big-scale project that proposes long-term benefits for the people. So, before starting something like this, they should’ve examined the existing canals, and tanks,” said Deepak. It means explaining, with evidence, why other options were ruled out. None of this appears in the document.

A 2020 paper that critiqued environmental impact assessment processes argued that environmental impact assessments should be overseen by an independent authority rather than consultants hired by the project, with communities formally represented in the process. The Supreme Court made a similar recommendation in a TN 2014 case, calling for an independent National Regulator for environmental clearances. Neither proposal has been implemented.

S Janakarajan, president of the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies, pointed to an alternative for this reservoir.

Across the nearby districts of Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, and Chengalpattu, there are over 3,600 hydrologically connected waterbodies. “The first priority should be to fix the stormwater drains, which carry sewage, and desilting and deepening these tanks so they fill effectively during heavy rainfall,” he said. “This could significantly augment the region’s storage without bothering the coastal ecosystem. There is no way we can artificially create a water body that matches the hydrological and ecological rigour of a naturally occurring one.”

Yet Janakarajan is not convinced the wetland will survive without the project. A reservoir, he argues, may be the only administrative mechanism that prevents the land from being converted to other uses.

His argument points to the larger problem of India’s land classification system, inherited from colonial governance. It classifies land as privately owned patta land, forest land, and wasteland/poramboke. However, wetlands and fishing grounds have no such distinct classification.

Yet the environmental impact assessment’s own land-use data classifies 14.68 square kilometres of the project area as coastal wetland, a category environmental courts have repeatedly directed governments to protect. The report addresses this contradiction by stating that after construction, “the entire area will be classified as a wetland region.”

The conservationists and ecologists who oppose the project proposed declaring the area as the protected Mamallan Lagoon with immediate effect. But the wetland is now being transformed, even as fundamental questions about its communities, hydrology and biodiversity remain contested.

This article was first published on Mongabay.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi demanded that Amit Shah be removed as the Union home minister, alleging that he was responsible for “the brutality carried out against students” during their protest in Delhi on July 20. He also demanded an investigation by a Supreme Court-monitored high-powered committee into violence against protesters.

Gandhi said at a press conference that either Shah ordered the violence or that he did not know it was happening. “If he didn’t know it was happening, he is incompetent,” the Congress MP said. “If he knew, then he is culpable. In either case, he has to go.”

Earlier, while speaking in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi had alleged that Shah had “authorised the shooting of our students” during the nationwide youth protests.

“He put the pellets into the blood of our students,” the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said. “He ordered the students of India to be shot.”

His remarks triggered protests in the House, leading to an adjournment. Read on.

The Lok Sabha passed a bill to amend the anti-paper leak law through a voice vote amid protests by Opposition MPs demanding “justice” for students who took part in the July 20 march to Parliament. Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi said the legislation would usher “in a tougher legal framework to combat examination malpractices”.

The bill will now go to the Rajya Sabha and, if passed, be sent for presidential assent before becoming a law.

The 2026 Public Examinations Prevention of Unfair Means Amendment Bill proposes stricter penalties, including up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh for using unfair means in public examinations, up from Rs 10 lakh. It also provides for a Special Task Force to investigate paper leaks and fast-track courts for related cases.

The bill comes days after nationwide protests over alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive examinations, which led to Dharmendra Pradhan stepping down as education minister. Read on.

The Delhi Police has registered a first information report against social media platform X over allegedly defamatory and objectionable posts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi during youth protests. The police has also written to X seeking that the “derogatory, malicious and defamatory content” about “constitutional heads” be removed.

The case was filed by the Special Cell’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit under charges including criminal intimidation, public mischief and defamation.

The police had earlier identified 450 social media accounts that allegedly shared deepfake videos and AI-generated content during protests over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations. Read on.

The toll in the Assam floods rose to 75 after seven more deaths were reported in Sivasagar district, according to the state disaster management authority. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma increased the ex gratia payment for families of those killed to Rs 9 lakh from Rs 4 lakh.

Sarma said families can claim compensation without submitting post-mortem reports and can instead provide certificates from circle officers. He added that persons who remain missing for over a month will also be eligible.

Charaideo is the worst-affected district, with 1.4 lakh people impacted. Read on.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our Daily Brief newsletter.

On July 27, the Bihar government said it would withdraw all police complaints against students who had taken part in protests demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

This was in keeping with the agreement between the central government and the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirically named outfit, that had led month-long protests in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar demanding Pradhan’s ouster for failing to stop question paper leaks of India’s centralised medical entrance test.

The CJP agreed to call off the protests after Pradhan resigned and after the Narendra Modi government agreed to withdraw cases against protestors.

But two days after the Bihar government’s announcement, hundreds of families were still lined up outside the Beur Central Jail in Bihar’s Patna on Wednesday, waiting for relatives to be released.

Among them was Mukesh Kumar, a teenager from the state capital. Kumar was waiting for Jairam, his elder brother, who had been arrested on July 25 from a protest in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan.

Jairam, a Class XII student, had gone to Gandhi Maidan to lend support to the campaign in Delhi by the Cockroach Janta Party.

“It has been five days since they have kept him inside the jail,” Kumar said. “Is he a criminal that you are keeping him in jail with thousands of convicted criminals? Is this how you treat an innocent 18-year-old?”

In Bihar, the crackdown on the protests was among the fiercest, with clashes breaking out between students and police officials in many places. Close to 700 students were arrested or detained, including over 300 underage protestors.

As Scroll had reported, two bystanders had been shot by the police in Siwan as it opened fire on the protests.

The police action in Bihar has been criticised as excessive and sweeping by several Opposition politicians.

Jairam was among 144 people arrested in a case of an alleged attack on the police. He was charged under sections related to rioting, attempt to murder, waging war against India, among others. The FIR also named 5,000 unidentified persons.

Scroll spoke to several families outside the Patna central jail, who recounted how their relatives were picked up from protests, without their families being informed of their whereabouts. Many of them had been detained for close to five days.

K Suhita Anupam, the additional director-general (law and order) Bihar, told Scroll that the police no longer have any role to play after the arrested have been sent to judicial custody.

“It is now with the courts,” she said. “The state’s advocate general has already written to the district magistrates and public prosecutors in relation with the withdrawal of all the cases related to [the students’] protests.”

‘He will definitely go to jail’

Jairam was standing on a footpath near Gandhi Maidan, when a group of police officials charged towards them, according to a friend who accompanied him to the July 25 protest.

“When he took out his phone and tried to take a video of the police, around 10 policemen started to beat him,” the friend said. “They caught his collar and threw away his phone. Two female constables also grappled with me but I was released.”

Jairam was taken away by the police.

For about three hours, his friend said she got no information of his whereabouts.

“After three hours, he called us from the Digha police station,” she said. But when she reached there, the police officials did not allow her to meet Jairam, nor did they release him.

His brother Mukesh Kumar said that when he went to the police station the next day on July 26, they warned him that his brother was in big trouble.

“When I showed them his photo, the police said he will definitely be sent to jail. Neta ban raha tha tumhara bhai, video bana raha tha,” he said. Your brother was trying to be a leader, he was making a video.

When Mukesh met him in the jail on Wednesday, he saw an injury mark on his face. “He was hit by the police before being taken away.”

‘He is an engineer, not a goon’

Camping outside the Patna central jail on Wednesday was Nutan Kumari, whose brother had also been arrested from the Gandhi Maidan protest on July 25.

Deepak Kumar, a 28-year-old civil engineer who works in Tamil Nadu, had gone to the protest out of curiosity and not to take part, his sister said.

But when he saw a driver with the Rapido platform being stopped and beaten up by the police, he took out his phone to shoot a video.

“He just said, ‘Dekhiye kaise yeh log lathi charge kar rahe hain beguuna Rapido logo parr’,” she said. See how the police are hitting innocent Rapido boys.

Angered, the police dragged him and took him away, Nutan claimed.

For about 28 hours, the family did not know about his whereabouts. “We only got to know on July 26 around 4 pm that the police had picked him up,” she said.

Nutan said she was shocked to know that Deepak has been charged with attempting to murder a police officer. The FIR against him and 144 others will be withdrawn, according to the Bihar government.

When Nutan met him on Tuesday, she said he broke into tears. “My brother is an engineer. He is not a goon. He only tried to expose how the police were beating up innocents. For that, will you arrest him under attempt to murder charges?”

No information

None of the families had been informed by the police about the arrests, they told Scroll.

According to Sections 47 and 48 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, which outline mandatory legal safeguards during an arrest without a warrant, the police must immediately tell the person the grounds for arrest and notify a nominated relative or friend about the arrest and detention location.

“I only got to know on July 26 morning that my brother had been taken to the Hawai Adda police station,” Prince Kumar, a resident of Begusarai, told Scroll.

His younger brother, Piyush Kumar, a 19-year old student, had gone to buy books near Gandhi Maidan on July 25 when he was arrested. He has been in custody for five days.

“After 48 hours, his medical [examination] was done and he was produced before the magistrate,” Prince said. “As per protocol, the family should be informed within 24 hours of the arrest. But they did not.”

Prince Kumar criticised the excessive response of the police to the protest. “Even if he was participating in the protest, he is within his rights to do so. We have the right to protest. If the government wants to bulldoze it, then it is wrong.”

‘I was made to sign a bond’

Among the 300-odd underage protestors detained across Bihar was Sofia, who had taken part in the protest in Gandhi Maidan on July 25.

“I thought ki desh ki liye kuch karo,” she told Scroll. I thought let’s do something for the country.

The Class 12 student’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

Sofia said she was attacked when she tried to stop police officials from beating up another girl at the protest.

“As I was trying to save her, about 10 female constables broke two lathis on our bodies,” she said.

Sofia and seven girls were taken to the Rupaspur police station, where she was detained for 30 hours, she said.

She was released only after the police made her sign a bond, which she could barely read through. “Our Constitution gives us the right to raise our voices and protest,” Sofia said. “But I am not sure whether I can protest anymore. They made me sign a bond and the police warned me that bad things will happen to me if I attend a protest.”

All photographs by Rokibuz Zaman.

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a bill to amend the anti-paper leak law through a voice vote.

The bill will now be moved to the Rajya Sabha. If cleared by the Upper House of Parliament, it will be sent for presidential assent.

The 2026 Public Examinations Prevention of Unfair Means Amendment Bill was introduced by Union minister Jitendra Singh on Monday, days after nationwide protests against alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive examinations.

The legislation proposes imprisonment of five to ten years for individuals found using unfair means in public examinations. The maximum fine for such persons would increase from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Singh said that the government took swift action in the 2026 National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test paper leak case. He added that 52 first information reports had been lodged since the 2024 Public Examinations Prevention of Unfair Means Act came into force.

The bill was passed amid slogans by the Opposition MPs, demanding “justice” for the students who took part in the march to Parliament on July 20. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet guns against the demonstrators.

The House was adjourned for the day following the passage of the bill.

Pralhad Joshi, the newly appointed education minister, described the passage of the bill as “ushering in a tougher legal framework to combat examination malpractices”.

In a post on social media, Joshi said the bill “aims to dismantle the paper leak ecosystem and increase transparency, credibility and fairness in the examination process”.

Key provisions

One of the key provisions of the bill empowers the Union government to set up a Special Task Force to investigate offences of paper leaks. The probe by police, central investigating agencies or the task force would have to be completed within two months, it says.

The bill would also require state governments and Union Territory administrations to set up special fast track courts. Pending cases under the Act would also be transferred to these fast track courts and disposed of within three months of transfer.

If instances of paper leaks or other offences listed under the bill are found to be organised, the bill proposes a minimum sentence of seven years and a fine of up to Rs 10 crore.

A total of 15 illegal acts, including leaking question papers, tampering with optical mark recognition sheets, creating fake websites and issuing fake admit cards, have been listed as offences under the bill.

Optical Mark Recognition is a system that reads answers marked by candidates by detecting filled bubbles or marks on an answer sheet.

Youth protests against exam irregularities

The bill came following nationwide protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign demanding the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union education minister on account of the alleged mismanagement of a series of competitive exams. Pradhan resigned as the education minister on July 25, after which the Cockroach Janta Party withdrew its agitation.

The Cockroach Janta Party had begun its protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on June 6.

On July 20, thousands joined the protest two days after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike for three weeks, to hospital. Their march to Parliament was met with a crackdown by the police.

The police action turbocharged the agitation, which spread to other parts of the country.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Sara Varghese.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation’s decision to close the case against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an alleged coal allocation scam, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant allowed Singh’s appeal challenging the summons issued to him by a trial court in 2015.

The order came a year-and-a-half after the former prime minister died in December 2024.

On Wednesday, advocate Kapil Sibal told the court that while Singh’s appeal may have technically become infructuous, or no longer relevant, after his death, the trial court’s adverse observations against the former prime minister required judicial interference, Live Law reported. Sibal urged the court to expunge those observations.

The Supreme Court remarked that although Singh’s death meant that the appeal could be disposed of as infructuous, it was important to look into whether the trial court’s decision to summon him was legally valid.

The bench noted that the special judge had rejected the CBI’s closure report on Singh, and taken cognisance of the case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Live Law reported. The court said that the special judge had failed to apply settled principles about the acceptance of closure reports.

The court said it was satisfied that “there was no reason for the learned judge to turn down the closure reports of the CBI and take cognisance”, Live Law reported.

In August 2014, the Supreme Court had quashed the allocation of 214 coal blocks made by the Union government between 1993 and 2010.

A three-judge bench headed by RM Lodha, the chief justice at the time, had cancelled all but four of the total 218 allocations, calling them “arbitrary, illegal and amounting to unfair distribution of national wealth”. The judgement came in response to a petition filed by the non-governmental organisation Common Cause and others challenging the legality of coal block allocations to private companies from 1993 onwards.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to two men who had been in jail for 12 years under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, observing that there was no immediate prospect of the trial concluding, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta held that the continued incarceration of the suspects amounted to a violation of their fundamental right to personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The court has directed the release on bail of Mohammed Saquib Ansari and Waqar Azhar, subject to conditions imposed by the trial court and provided they were not required in any other case, the legal news outlet reported.

The case stems from the arrest of a suspected Indian Mujahideen member in November 2011, who allegedly disclosed the existence of a Rajasthan module of the banned outfit during interrogation.

Based on his disclosures, investigators allegedly recovered explosives and materials suspected to have been used for making improvised explosive devices from premises linked to Ansari in Jodhpur and Azhar in Jaipur.

They were arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell in March 2014, ANI reported.

The recoveries led to the registration of two separate first information reports in Rajasthan. Ansari and Azhar were also named as accused in the FIR registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell, which alleged a larger conspiracy by the Indian Mujahideen to carry out terrorist activities in and around the national capital.

Ansari and Azhar had already secured bail in one of the Rajasthan cases, while their sentences in the other case were suspended by the Rajasthan High Court in 2021, Live Law reported.

The petitioners moved the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court, in its April 24 judgment, upheld the trial court’s rejection of their bail pleas in the Delhi Police’s case.

The court examined the status of the Delhi trial through the e-Courts portal and noted that only 68 of the 197 prosecution witnesses had been examined.

It further observed that just two witnesses had been examined since January 2025, including one whose testimony remained incomplete.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said that expressing the view that the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya should not have been demolished does not amount to being “anti-national”, Bar and Bench reported.

Justice Madhav Jamdar added that citizens are entitled to hold different opinions and quashed externment orders banning two members of the Social Democratic Party of India from entering Mumbai for a period of one year.

The Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, by Hindu extremists because they believed that it stood on the spot on which the deity Ram had been born. The incident had triggered communal riots across the country. On January 22, 2024, the Ram temple was inaugurated at the site in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The court was hearing petitions filed by Firoz Abdul Wahab Khan and Mohammad Rafiq Gulam Rasul Ansari challenging externment orders issued against them on December 3, 2025, the legal news outlet reported.

The orders issued by the Mumbai Police were based on three first information reports registered in 2024 and 2025. The cases related to protests against the Waqf Amendment Bill, air pollution allegedly caused by cement godowns in the Chembur-Govandi area and the demolition of Babri Masjid.

The court verbally observed that action cannot be taken selectively against the petitioners “just because they belong to one religion”.

Jamdar highlighted that the state had not initiated externment proceedings against members of the Nationalist Congress Party or the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), despite one of the FIRs relating to a protest involving multiple Opposition parties, Live Law reported.

Specifically referring to the FIR about the Babri Masjid, the court noted that the state had claimed slogans about the matter “will create rift in the society” but had produced “no material” to support the allegation.

The chief public prosecutor argued that the petitioners’ participation in protests could disrupt social harmony and lead to a breach of peace, Bar and Bench reported.

However, the court said that fundamental rights cannot be restricted on the basis of “speculative apprehensions”.

The judge also reiterated that externment is an extraordinary measure that restricts the fundamental right to free movement and must strictly comply with statutory requirements, Bar and Bench reported.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged in the Lok Sabha that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had “authorised the shooting of our students” during the nationwide youth protests.

“He put the pellets into the blood of our students,” the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said. “He ordered the students of India to be shot.”

🔺The Home Minister ordered the shooting of our students.
🔺He put pellets into the blood of our students.
🔺He ordered the students of India to be shot.

: LoP Shri @RahulGandhi in Lok Sabha pic.twitter.com/DWrjb4RnRH

— Congress (@INCIndia) July 29, 2026

Gandhi also questioned Shah’s absence from the House and claimed that the students had raised “uncomfortable questions” that the home ministry was “too scared to answer”.

His comments triggered an uproar in the Lok Sabha, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju demanding that Gandhi apologise or provide evidence for the allegation, saying the House could not function without clarification.

Speaker Om Birla said statements made in Parliament must be backed by facts and warned that such remarks could not be made without the findings of an official inquiry.

“Unless you have a basis to say what you said, it can’t be taken on record,” Birla said.

In response, Gandhi said that “the use of force can only be authorised by the home minister or the prime minister”.

During his speech on the anti-paper leak bill, Gandhi also alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, controlled the education system in the country through the education ministry and said that the resignation of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was “superficial”.

“They [students] are not allowed to follow their passion, say what they want or ask the questions they want,” Gandhi said. “Instead, they have to buy this nonsensical history that the RSS sells.”

The agitation in Delhi began on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Pradhan from his post over alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.

On July 20, thousands joined the protest two days after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike for three weeks, to hospital. Their march to Parliament was met with a crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet guns against the demonstrators.

A day after the pellet guns were fired, the Delhi Police had denied using the weapon against the protesters. However, reports said that the pellet guns had been carried by the Rapid Action Force, a unit of the Central Reserve Police Force that was also deployed at the protest, as part of its riot-control equipment.

The police in the national capital and the Central Reserve Police Force report to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

The police action turbocharged the agitation, which spread to other parts of the country.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Also read:

• Delhi hospital reports show pellet wounds on journalist covering students’ protests
• Follow Scroll’s coverage of the youth protests here

A truck carrying stones that was seen parked near Delhi’s Jantar Mantar hours before the Cockroach Janta Party’s march to Parliament on July 20 had been in the custody of the Delhi Police for four days after it was seized in a road accident case, Newslaundry reported on Tuesday.

The Delhi Police acknowledged that the truck had been seized on July 16 in connection with the case. However, it stated that “claims alleging that [the truck] was deliberately deployed by Delhi Police near Jantar Mantar…are false and misleading”.

On July 20, hours before the Cockroach Janta Party’s planned march to Parliament, the political campaign posted a video on social media showing the truck carrying stones having been parked at Jantar Mantar.

Abhijeet Dipke, the campaign’s founder, had asked at the time whether the police was “orchestrating stone-pelting on the peaceful CJP protesters”.

Truck loaded with stones have been parked at Jantar Mantar.

What are the police authorities upto? Are they orchestrating stone-pelting on the peaceful CJP protesters? pic.twitter.com/luwTkVWI7S

— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) July 20, 2026

On Tuesday, Newslaundry reported that it had traced the truck using its registration number. The vehicle had been seized by the police on July 16 following a crash in central Delhi in which seven persons were injured. A first information report was registered in the crash and the truck had been in the custody of the Parliament Street police station.

Following the crash, the truck had been taken to at least four places including the protest site and outside the Indian Youth Congress office in Delhi, the news outlet reported.

Newslaundry reported that police personnel provided varying explanations for why the truck had been parked at the protest site.

Commenting on the report, the police acknowledged that the truck had been seized on July 16. It added that the vehicle had initially been parked near the Parliament Street police station “for safe custody due to space constraints”.

However, considering the law and order arrangements for the protesters’ march to Parliament, the truck was “later emptied and shifted to a safer place in the early hours of [July 20], after due instructions to the owner”, the police said.

“Any claim linking the vehicle to a conspiracy against protesters is completely baseless,” the police said.

The agitation in Delhi began on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union education minister at the time, over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.

On July 20, thousands joined the protest two days after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike for three weeks, to hospital. Their march to Parliament was met with a crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet gun against the demonstrators.

The police action turbocharged the agitation, which spread to other parts of the country.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Follow Scroll’s coverage of the youth protests here

What were the factors that drew tens of thousands of students to protests around the country this fortnight triggered by exam paper leaks and demands government accountability.?

In this episode of Yeh Daagh Daagh Ujaala, Danish Ali, N Sai Balaji and Mohammed Alfauz join writer and activist Harsh Mander to discuss the growing sense of betrayal among India’s students and how a new generation is reshaping protest through creativity, humour, music, memes, and social media.

All this was especially visible as demonstrators thronged Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Education Ministe Dharmendra Pradhan. He finally handed in his papers on Saturday.

PhD scholar Danish Ali is the joint secretary of the Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union. N Sai Balaji is a researcher and former president of the All India Students Association. Scholar Mohammed Alfauz is the national general secretary of the Fraternity Movement.

The panel also discusses questions of education policy, employment, democracy, and civic participation, reflecting on what these protests could mean for India's future and the evolving role of youth in public life.

The toll in flood-related incidents in Assam rose to 75 on Tuesday after seven more deaths were reported in Sivasagar district, the state disaster management authority said.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday announced that the ex gratia payment for the families of those killed in the floods had been increased to Rs 9 lakh from Rs 4 lakh. An additional Rs 5 lakh will be provided from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Sarma also said that families would not need to submit a post-mortem report to claim the compensation, PTI reported. Instead, a certificate issued by the circle officer concerned would suffice, the chief minister added.

In cases where a person remains missing and the body is not recovered within a month, the government will provide Rs 9 lakh in ex gratia assistance to the family.

Charaideo was the worst-affected district, with 1.4 lakh persons affected, followed by Sivasagar with 97,074 and Jorhat with 57,371.

About 45,342 hectares of cropland has been submerged, while 622 villages continued to be affected by the floods.

The Dhansiri river continues to flow above the danger level in Numaligarh district, the authorities said.

A total of 81 relief camps are currently operational, sheltering 32,477 displaced people. Additionally, 34 relief distribution centres are functioning across the affected areas.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Delhi Police has registered a first information report against X for allegedly objectionable and defamatory posts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the social media platform, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday. The posts were made during the youth protests.

A case has been registered at the Special Cell’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit under charges of criminal intimidation, public mischief and defamation, the newspaper reported.

The police had also written to X seeking that the “derogatory, malicious and defamatory content” about “constitutional heads” be removed from the platform, ANI reported on Wednesday.

The police had asked the social media platform to provide details of the account from which the content was posted, including the holder’s name, address, contact details and email ID. It also asked for login and logout details along with date and time stamps, the news agency reported.

It further directed the platform to preserve details related to the posts or videos for future investigation and provide a certificate under Section 63(4) of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.

The section requires any electronic record submitted as evidence in court to be accompanied by a certificate.

On Monday, The Indian Express reported that notices had been issued to three social media platforms directing them to take down purportedly objectionable content about Modi. The posts were being identified by the police’s social media monitoring team.

The Delhi Police had identified 450 social media accounts that shared alleged deepfake videos and content generated using artificial intelligence during the protests, the newspaper reported.

The content was posted online during the youth protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union education minister at the time, over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams.

On July 20, thousands joined the protest in Delhi two days after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike for three weeks, to hospital. Their march to Parliament was met with a crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet gun against the demonstrators.

The police action turbocharged the agitation, which spread to other parts of the country.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Watch: Arundhati Roy on India’s youth trumping Modi: ‘Bigger than winning an election’

A first information report was filed against an unidentified woman for holding a poster expressing support for jailed activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam during the youth protests at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park last week, the Deccan Herald reported on Tuesday.

On Friday, demonstrations were held in several parts of the country, including Congress-ruled Karnataka, in solidarity with the protests in Delhi against the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive examinations.

The FIR was filed on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Sulochana, who alleged that the woman was carrying a poster with slogans supporting Khalid and Imam, as well as purportedly abusive text about the Bengaluru Police, the Deccan Herald reported.

The woman had another poster expressing support for the transgender community, The News Minute reported.

The FIR accused the woman of displaying “provocative placards with the intention of inciting unrest and disturbing public peace”.

An unidentified official from Karnataka’s home department told The News Minute that the FIR was registered because of the purportedly abusive slogan about the police.

Earlier, an unidentified woman had claimed that a Bengaluru Police officer snatched a poster with the slogan “Free Umar Khalid” from her, The News Minute reported.

It is unclear whether the FIR has been registered against the same woman.

On Saturday, the police in Goa’s Panaji had detained two persons for holding a placard expressing support for Khalid during a demonstration held in solidarity with the youth protests in Delhi.

Cases against Khalid, Imam

Imam, Khalid and several other activists had been arrested between January 2020 and September 2020 in connection with the communal violence that broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.

The police have claimed that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was planned by those who organised the protests against the amended Citizenship Act.

Khalid and Imam are facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Arms Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code.

They have spent nearly six years in jail, without trial. Their petitions for regular bails have been rejected repeatedly.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

“The question that I have in my mind,” said Arundhati Roy, strolling around Jantar Mantar on Monday, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropped his education minister to quell youth anger, “is that does Modi know what was being said about him or is he protected from it?”

What began as a protest over an examination paper leak in May had turned into a raging storm last week after Delhi Police used lathis and pellets against youth protestors. In response, young people unleashed a torrent of jokes and memes ridiculing the prime minister in language that Roy said was “delightfully profane”.

“I always think that humour is the distillation of politics,” said the writer, speaking to Scroll’s Executive Editor Supriya Sharma.

Roy said the ‘cockroach’ movement, which emerged out of a social media parody account, had already achieved more than what it had set out to do.

“To me, the greatest achievement of this movement is that a person who confected his image so carefully over literally 24 years, starting from 2002, a person who has never deigned to address a press conference, and is still called vishwaguru, avataar of vishnu and all that, suddenly gets stripped bare in two weeks by these kids.”

Watch the full conversation on YouTube.

The Food Corporation of India sold rice to ethanol distilleries at about 40% below its average acquisition cost between June 2025 and June 2026, the Union government told Parliament on Tuesday.

The rice was sold at a price of Rs 2,250 per quintal to Rs 2,320 per quintal. The average acquisition cost was Rs 3,720 per quintal in the financial year 2024-’25 and Rs 3,889 per quintal in 2025-’26 based on data available so far, the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution told the Rajya Sabha.

Between November 2026 and June 2027, rice will be sold to ethanol distilleries for Rs 2,390 per quintal, it added.

The public sector organisation dispatched 6.3 million tonnes of rice worth Rs 14,596 crore to ethanol producers during the 12-month period.

At 844,141 tonnes, Haryana received the largest allocation of rice during the period. It was followed by Uttar Pradesh at 838,645 tonnes, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh combined at 658,952 tonnes, West Bengal at 584,672 tonnes, and Madhya Pradesh at 432,485 tonnes.

The government said that there is no subsidy granted to ethanol manufacturers for procuring rice for producing ethyl alcohol.

The ministry said that during the one-year period, the authorities found two cases of Food Corporation of India’s rice meant for ethanol production being diverted and action was initiated.

“Following detection of irregularities in the movement of rice consignments by the two distilleries, state food departments have taken necessary action,” the ministry said. “FCI has also discontinued further allocation of rice to these distilleries.”

India’s ethanol production has risen amid the Union government’s Ethanol Blended Petrol programme. It currently mandates the sale of petrol blended with 20% ethanol. India hit its target of reaching a 20% ethanol mix in petrol in July 2025, five years ahead of schedule.

The blending of ethanol with petrol is part of India’s broader energy transition strategy aimed at reducing dependency on fossil fuels, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting income for sugarcane farmers.

However, consumers have complained that the new fuel mix damages engines and reduces their mileage.

An opinion poll by LocalCircles published on July 5 showed that 53% of the surveyed petrol vehicle owners said that they believe that the government’s handling of the E20 rollout was “disastrous” or “ineffective”.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The number of Indians having reported their annual income to be Rs 100 crore or more has increased four-fold in five years, the Union government told Parliament on Monday.

The data was released by the government while responding to a question about how many billionaires were there in the country. The Ministry of Finance said that there was no statutory definition of the term “billionaire” in the Income Tax Act.

However, it listed the number of persons who had reported an annual income of Rs 100 crore or more each financial year between 2021-’22 and 2025-’26.

In the fiscal year 2021-’22, there were 142 persons with an income in the more than Rs 100 crore category. The number of persons in the category more than doubled to 301 in the following financial year.

As of the financial year 2025-’26, there were 576 persons at that income level.

The ministry said that it does not have data on the estimated aggregate wealth of Indian billionaires as the Wealth Tax Act was abolished in 2016.

A study published by global property management firm Knight Frank in April showed that India currently has 207 dollar billionaires and more than 19,850 ultra-high net worth individuals. The country is projected to have 313 billionaires and more than 25,200 ultra-high net worth individuals by 2031, the study showed.

The firm defines ultra-high net worth individuals as persons having assets valued at Rs 287 crore, $30 million, or more.

This came as the 2026 World Inequality Report released in December showed that India is one of the most unequal countries in the world, with the top 1% of the population holding 40% of the wealth.

Inequality in India has shown no signs of reduction in recent years, the findings of the study published by the World Inequality Lab had shown.

The richest 10% hold about 65% of the total wealth, it had said.

Five of the richest families in India saw their wealth increase by 400% between 2019 and 2025, according to the 2026 Wealth Tracker India study published by non-profit organisation Centre for Financial Accountability and Tax The Top campaign on April 1.

The study said that the share of the bottom 50% in the country’s wealth stagnated at 6.4% by 2024.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Fifteen sailors, including 13 Indians, are trapped in a “terrible and life-threatening situation” at the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk with missile and drone attacks in the area, the Forward Seamen’s Union of India said on Tuesday.

The port is located on the Black Sea coast.

The crew of the Tanzania-flagged merchant vessel AMIR1 is “living under constant fear of a direct hit at any moment”, the union said.

The organisation urged the authorities, the shipowner, the country where the vessel is registered and New Delhi to “immediately secure their safety and arrange prompt repatriation”.

Indian seafarers must not be left as “sitting targets” in conflict zones, the union said.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has not yet commented on the matter.

Several vessels with Indians on board have been struck in the region this month.

On Sunday, the Indian embassy in Kyiv said that a ship with four Indians on board was struck by a projectile at the Odesa port in Ukraine. While two of the Indian seafarers are safe, “information is awaited regarding the other two”, the embassy said.

The incident came days after four Indians were killed and one critically injured after a cargo ship was attacked while it departed the port of Odesa on July 19. The five Indians were among the 17 crew on board the ship.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had accused Russia of attacking the vessel inside his country’s maritime corridor. The incident came amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.

On July 21, the external affairs ministry said that it had summoned the Russian chargé d’affaires to convey “India’s grave concerns and unequivocal condemnation” of the attack on the vessel.

Three days later, the ministry stated that an Indian seafarer had been killed in an attack on a cargo ship in the Black Sea on July 18. The incident occurred when the merchant vessel Omorfi was passing through the sea and was reportedly in Russian territorial waters.

On July 28, New Delhi summoned Ukrainian ambassador Oleksandr Polishchuk in connection with the attack on Omorfi. The minister said that it had conveyed its “serious concern” about the incident.

MEA’s advisory

Stating that vessels in and around the Black Sea are facing significant security risks, the Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday advised Indians employed or planning to undertake employment in the region to “carefully assess the security risks before accepting such assignments”.

It also asked those who choose to work on vessels operating in conflict zones to obtain information from employers regarding the vessel’s intended route, ports of call, security arrangements, insurance coverage and emergency response procedures.

On July 23, the authority had asked Indian seafarers to report any security incident or suspicious activity on the DGCOMM Centre, which is the Directorate General of Shipping’s maritime communication, coordination and crisis response portal.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

While public attention was justifiably focused on Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk’s fast in Delhi, in support of the demands of the Cockroach Janta Party relating to education, there was quiet movement on the Union Territory of Ladakh’s long-standing demand for Constitutional safeguards.

At a meeting in late May between officials of the Central government and representatives of the Ladakh movement, whose minutes were confirmed in early July, there appears to have been a tentative breakthrough.

The movement has been demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule status – which would give Ladakhis considerable control over key decisions – for the moment, the agreement is more limited.

According to the official minutes: “It was unanimously decided that while statehood would remain the long-term aspiration of Ladakh, in the present situation, as a first step, an appropriate customized model of governance by establishing a UT level elected body with executive, financial and legislative powers would be established.”

As part of this, the elected body would have control and supervision of civil servants, including issuing their Annual Performance Appraisal Reports, documents that are crucial for the reputation and promotion chances of bureaucrats.

From the minutes, the precise nature of the elected body that will be established is not yet clear. There has been discussion about using Article 371 of the Constitution, under which some states have varying degrees of independent administrative, political and legal powers.

Nagaland, for instance, has the power to reject national laws and frame their own, as long as these are Constitutionally valid. Article 371A gives considerable powers to village councils. The minutes state that Ladakh could adopt a “customized sui generis model” and a draft containing details including executive, financial and legislative powers would be prepared.

Since the minutes do not specify who is to prepare such a draft, this is an opportunity for the Apex Body Leh and the Kargil Democratic Alliance to prepare their own. These organisations have been spearheading the movement for democratic powers since 2019, when the Central government’s action to downgrade Jammu and Kashmir’s Constitutional status had also carved out Ladakh as a Union Territory.

They have several years of experience weighing the pros and cons of possible pathways that could help fulfil the most important objectives of the movement.

These objectives include local collective rights to and control over land and resources, protection of the area’s unique ecological heritage and values, enhancement of livelihood opportunities including in governmental positions, and safeguarding the region’s ancient cultural identity, which is a mix of Buddhism and Islam, as also older faiths and customs, and a diversity of languages.

All of these are urgent, given that in the last few years of control by New Delhi through a lieutenant governor and a Union Territory administration mostly run by non-Ladakhis, several controversial processes and projects have been promoted.

The Autonomous Hill Council, which was recognised after considerable agitation for autonomy when Ladakh was part of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, has been weakened, and currently non-existent since no elections have been held. Decisions regarding land-use have been dominated by the Union Territory administration.

The exploration for critical and other minerals continues and the exploitation of these resources could be ecologically damaging. Mega-projects are being actively pursued and contracts for infrastructure are going to outside bidders.

Tailor-made provisions

The Apex Body Leh and the Kargil Democratic Alliance have before them the possibility of cherry-picking the best of provisions from Article 371 and the Sixth Schedule, and even beyond as long as they are not constitutionally invalid. They can tailor-make legal, financial and administrative powers that would enable meeting the above objectives.

For instance, they could pick the power of Nagaland (and former Jammu and Kashmir) to accept (in original or modified form) or reject national laws. This is crucial in a situation in which the Central government has been systematically weakening provisions in environmental, labour and employment related laws.

They could choose provisions that significantly empower village and town level institutions to be able to take decisions on matters of land, environment, water, and so on. This includes recognising the long-standing and still robust yulpa (village assembly) and goba (village headperson) governance institutions of Ladakh, and clarifying their roles vis-à-vis panchayats. They could even consider these traditional institutions as equivalent to panchayats as is the case of the dzomsa system in north Sikkim.

Certain reforms in these could be mandated to remove discriminatory practices against women and marginalised castes. They could also enhance the legislative and financial powers of these local-level institutions, beyond the rather weak provisions available to panchayats in national laws.

Clear lines of power will need to be put into place with the principle of subsidiarity, with decision-making primarily at village- and town assembly-level, and only those decisions that cannot be taken at such levels, going to district- and Union Territory-level institutions.

Special provisions could be made for the ecological and livelihood security of unique regions such as Changthang, which has an ancient system of nomadic pastoralism, including the famous Pashmina goat rearing, and some of the world’s most valuable and beautiful high-altitude lake landscapes.

Local communities and the Union Territory elected body could be given powers to regulate tourism, which is a major source of livelihood for the people, but also causes problems such as garbage, pollution, excessive water use, drugs and certain cultural influences.

It is not clear if the Central government will insist on retaining the position of a lieutenant governor or governor, which comes with the status of a Union Territory. If so, provisions are needed to ensure that they cannot override the decisions of the elected body – with exceptions such as matters of security.

Another complicating factor is the heavy presence of the armed forces given Ladakh’s long international borders with Pakistan and China-occupied Tibet. This, like tourism, has had impacts that are both positive – jobs, investment – and negative, like the take-over of land, blocks to mobility.

On their part, Ladakh’s people have been mostly very cooperative, including with help in defending the borders. A clear understanding will be needed between the elected body and the army, to enhance cooperation and minimise harm.

There is, of course, no guarantee that even with full democratic power, Ladakh will be able to safeguard its cultural, economic and ecological well-being. A lot will depend on its own leaders and population.

After all, many of these objectives were also the foundation of the struggles that created Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand states, but subsequently their own leaders have often abrogated their responsibility towards social and ecological justice.

In a bid to generate financial resources, these state governments have mostly pursued the conventional model of development with mining, mass tourism and industrialisation, to the detriment of their own ecological and livelihood security.

If Ladakh has to blaze a different pathway, it will need to work out a political and economic model that is truly sensitive to its uniqueness, building on its own significant resources, and retaining all the revenues generated there. It could also consider establishing an independent environmental and community rights watchdog consisting of people with a proven track record.

Whatever legal status is decided on, at the outset some core principles should be enshrined, such as full democratic participation by people, ecological integrity at the heart of all development decisions, sustaining cultural diversity, gender and other forms of equality, collective control and governance of the commons, and priority to local people for livelihoods and jobs while not excluding migrants in need.

Given the awareness that the Apex Body Leh, the Kargil Democratic Alliance and activists like Sonam Wangchuk have shown over the last few years, there is hope that such a pathway can be set, once an appropriate Constitutional status for Ladakh is put into place.

Ashish Kothari is an environmental researcher.

The Bharatiya Janata Party governments in Maharashtra and West Bengal on Tuesday stopped coercive action against protesters who demonstrated against alleged irregularities in public exams last week, The Indian Express reported.

In Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state’s home minister, ordered the authorities to withdraw first information reports against protesters, the newspaper reported.

Twenty FIRs were registered in Mumbai in which more than 1,000 persons had been booked.

In West Bengal, the BJP government said it would not take coercive action against students. However, it cited an order passed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday to state that the cases against persons with criminal antecedents would not be dropped, The Indian Express reported.

The authorities were quoted as saying that as of Sunday evening, one case had been registered based on a complaint filed by the police in connection with the protests against paper leaks.

Sixteen persons had been arrested in the matter. All of them had been granted bail by the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on Tuesday, The New Indian Express reported.

Six other cases had been registered on complaints by journalists who alleged that they had been assaulted during the protest on Friday.

On Monday, the BJP governments in Assam and Bihar said that they will release protesters who were detained or arrested during the agitation against alleged irregularities in public exams last week. The states said that they will also withdraw cases that had been filed against the demonstrators.

The agitation in Delhi started on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union education minister at the time, over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Solidarity protests were held in several states. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.

The BJP-ruled states began ceasing coercive action after the Cockroach Janta Party on Monday remarked that there had been a “complete breach” of its agreement with the Union government with respect to its promise that no police action would be taken against peaceful protesters.

Cockroach Janta Party spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka had said that all cases filed against protesters must be withdrawn and all those who have been taken into custody must be released, “failing which we will be forced to sit on protest again”.

Court directive ‘wholly unacceptable’, says CJP

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court allowed the authorities in Delhi and other states to proceed with investigations in cases that have been registered in connection with the protests.

However, it directed that no coercive action should be taken against protesting students and that minors who had been detained should be released, as long as they did not have any “criminal antecedents”.

The Cockroach Janta Party said that the Supreme Court’s directive was “wholly unacceptable” and described it as “uninformed”.

The campaign’s spokesperson Saurav Das said that the group has a “credible apprehension” that the Union government and BJP-ruled states may “seek to use and weaponise” the order to continue filing and investigating FIRs against individual protesters and “subject them to great harassment”.

The Supreme Court “cannot be politicised for government’s gains”, Das said on social media on Tuesday. “Its orders cannot be weaponised to achieve those gains,” he added.

The Cockroach Janta Party said that the government had given a guarantee to the nation that needs to be honoured.

Das added: “All FIRs ought to be withdrawn. If criminals roamed, police must apply for cancellation of bail in their old cases. Must also answer why they were roaming so freely in society. But the government can’t use this excuse to pursue FIRs so it can later target genuine protesters. If given this leeway, the government will, of course, use it.”

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Follow Scroll’s coverage of the youth protests here

The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a chargesheet against 13 arrested persons accused in the 2026 undergraduate National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test paper leak case, The Hindu reported on Wednesday. All of them are in judicial custody.

The chargesheet came three days after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as the Union education minister following a nearly two-month agitation led by the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive examinations.

Among those named in the chargesheet are three National Testing Agency subject experts. The agency conducts the NEET examination.

Those named in the chargesheet are chemistry expert PV Kulkarni, biology expert Manisha Gurunath Mandhare and physics expert Manisha Sanjay Havaldar, The Hindu reported.

The CBI alleged that Kulkarni leaked the question paper, The Indian Express reported.

The agency also alleged that another accused person Shivaraj Motegaonkar, a professor and owner of RCC Coaching Institute in Maharashtra’s Latur, obtained the question paper at Siddhivinayak Hospital in the district. The hospital is run by Manoj Bhagwanrao Shirure, who has also been named in the chargesheet.

The CBI claimed that the hospital premises were used to “facilitate access to a chemistry question paper” in April, weeks before the examination, The Indian Express reported.

The agency has also arrested several alleged intermediaries accused of sourcing and distributing the leaked questions. Tejas Harshadkumar Shah, physics faculty and chief operating officer at APMA Coaching Institute in Pune, was also arrested, The Indian Express reported.

The agency has invoked sections of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and destruction of evidence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examinations Prevention of Unfair Means Act.

The CBI had registered the case on May 12 based on a complaint by the Department of Higher Education alleging irregularities in the conduct of the 2026 undergraduate NEET examination, which was held on May 3. The National Testing Agency had cancelled the examination on May 12 following reports of paper leak. A re-examination was held on June 21 and the results were declared on July 16.

So far, the CBI has arrested several teachers, students and other accused from Delhi, Jaipur, Gurugram, Nashik, Pune, Latur and Ahilyanagar in connection with the case, the newspaper reported.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read: NEET paper leak fast-track court’s first hearing adjourned due to absence of CBI lawyer

Fifty years ago, India was in the midst of the Emergency. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government had suspended civil liberties, censored the press and imprisoned tens of thousands of protesters.

Today, there is no formal declaration of emergency or suspension of fundamental rights under the constitution. But the parallels are hard to miss.

As we write this, a nationwide protest movement triggered by young people frustrated at the denial of their voices and the lack of opportunities has been met with brutal police action. A film about a human rights defender slain 30 years ago has inexplicably been taken off the streaming platform that had hosted it.

Provisions of the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act, introduced in 1976 during the Emergency, have been amended again to further tighten the state’s grip on civil society organisations that work to uncover high-level corruption, environmental degradation and human rights violations.

As during the Emergency, the state’s investigative agencies have been weaponised to go after dissidents, using the time-tested bogey of national security and fear of foreign influence to silence those not aligned with the ruling party.

Recent attacks on democratic dissent in India have not come out of nowhere. They fit a clear pattern of decline in civic freedoms under Prime Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party government, which first came to power in 2014. Since then, human rights defenders, journalists and members of the political opposition have faced extreme forms of harassment through misuse of state powers.

This is why the Civicus Monitor, which measures civic freedoms around the world. has rated India as “repressed” since 2019, indicating systematic civic space restrictions. This seriously weakens the country’s claim of being the world’s largest democracy. Other countries in the same category include Cambodia, Colombia, Libya, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

This month, India is also being placed on the Civicus Monitor’s watchlist, which highlights countries experiencing severe declines in civic freedoms. It takes its place alongside Bahrain, which is ruled by an absolute monarchy, Burkina Faso, which is in the grip of a military junta, and Ecuador and Georgia, where legislation has been weaponised to seriously undermine civil society efforts to promote accountability.

Persecution of human rights defenders

A key factor in including India on the watchlist is the continued judicial persecution of human rights defenders and protest leaders. They include Khurram Parvez from the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Coalition, who has been charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. He had been imprisoned without trial since November 2021. The United Nations affirmed that he has been denied the right to a fair trial and that his detention was arbitrary.

Only in July was he finally freed on bail with strict conditions, and he still faces charges. He had been working to document alleged human rights violations by the security forces, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.

Others remain behind bars. In June, activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who led protests in Delhi against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, were again denied bail. They have been imprisoned without trial since 2020.

Journalists and critical media agencies are also facing significant forms of intimidation. In February, investigative journalist Ravi Nair was sentenced to a year in jail for defamation over social media posts critical of the Adani Group, which is seen to be close to the ruling party.

In April, the office of daily newspaper Asomiya Pratidin was attacked following critical comments by the chief minister of Assam. In the same month, police undertook an investigation into social media news outlet TeluguScribe under anti-terror legislation.

Sadly, for a country with proud democratic traditions born out of its inspiring struggle for independence, India ranks at a lowly 157 out of 180 countries covered by the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index.

The Emergency that was imposed roughly a quarter of a century after India’s Independence offered significant lessons in courage and resistance as people from all walks of life rose up to defend cherished democratic ideals. They were shocked into action at the suspension of their fundamental rights and the failure of the country’s institutions to safeguard their rights. A mass movement followed.

A turning point

In the end, in the face of sustained public pressure, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government was forced to lift the restrictions. A period of intense restoration of democratic ideals and institutions followed. The Supreme Court issued several landmark decisions, including in the Kesavananda Bharati case reaffirming the rights-based underpinnings of the Constitution, including the primacy of fundamental rights and the separation of powers between the executive, legislature and the judiciary.

Some 50 years later, India is facing another turning point. Today, young people from across the country are uniting in the time-tested tradition of satyagraha under the umbrella of the Cockroach Janata Party. They are facing the extraordinary might of the state from Prime Minister Modi’s government and the ruling party, many of whose own members were once unjustly imprisoned for resisting the Emergency.

The protests, it seems clear, are a significant milestone in India’s journey as a democracy.

Mandeep S Tiwana is the secretary general of global civil society alliance, Civicus.

Fatima listens to old speeches of the student-activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam before going to the gym these days. “They are like my pre-workout supplements,” the 28-year-old working for a media organisation in Delhi said jokingly.

Both Khalid and Imam had risen to prominence during the nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019-’20 and have been in prison since then for their purported role in organising the 2020 Delhi riots.

Fatima, who like most people interviewed for this piece requested to not be identified by her real name, was a student at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests. When Delhi Police officials stormed into the university’s library with batons and tear gas on December 15, 2019, she was inside.

That is why she had been itching to go to the Jantar Mantar protest site ever since the police used excessive force to stop protesters from marching to Parliament on July 20. The Cockroach Janta Party, which started as a satirical meme page, had been leading protests against question paper leaks since June 6. However, for Fatima, questions about the ideology of those leading its protest came in the way.

“They don’t have clarity and they have no spine,” she complained, pointing to the photograph of Sonam Wangchuk, the climate activist and educationist, breaking his 26-day fast with Union Health Minister JP Nadda by his side. “Every day I used to think about going to Jantar Mantar, but then something like this would happen and I would not go.”

Other young Muslims who took part in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests over six years ago share this ambivalence.

“Umar and Sharjeel should have been on that stage,” rued Zehra, a 30-year-old artist who also did not go to Jantar Mantar even though she felt sympathy for the protesting students. In her view, the cockroach campaign had sidestepped the issue of communal hatred against Muslims and other minorities by keeping too narrow a focus on paper leaks.

“It was about education, and rightly so, but the movement would be hollow if it did not raise questions about the wrongful and prolonged incarceration of political prisoners,” Zehra added, referring to the imprisonment of the leaders of the 2019 anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests. “They, too, were students. I don’t know if anything will change for Muslims with him [Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan] resigning.”

Both Fatima and Zehra contrasted the cockroach campaign with the 2019 anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests to make the point that the latter had allowed Muslims to participate as themselves as well as raise issues that mattered to them. In the recent protests, on the other hand, leaders attempted to police slogans used by protesters and justified their decision to not talk about political prisoners such as Khalid.

Memories of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests and the subsequent police crackdown were two big factors that kept many young Muslims away from the protests this time. Those whom Scroll spoke to said there was apprehension among members of the community that they might be scapegoated by the government for participating in the protests – and this when the campaign did not even address them directly.

Some of these fears came true just before the Cockroach Janta Party withdrew its protest on July 25. Three members from the family of Muhammad Junaid, a volunteer with the campaign in Delhi, were picked up by the police in Uttar Pradesh even though there were no cases against him or his family. In Kolkata, most of those arrested for participating in the protests were Muslim.

Despite that, Scroll met many Muslims at the protest site in Delhi. They said that they had set aside all other considerations to lend their support to a rare mass mobilisation against the Modi government.

‘Focus on education’

One such protester was Arif, a student from Uttar Pradesh who had come to Delhi to attend college. The 22-year-old saw up close the impact that the leak of the undergraduate medical entrance exam question paper had – an incident that was the major spark for these protests.

“My sister appeared in the NEET [National Eligibility cum Entrance Test] exam in May,” he said. “After the exam was scrapped, she went into depression.”

Arif was accompanied by his friend and classmate Ajaz, also from Uttar Pradesh. “I am here because more than 20 students committed suicide after the NEET exam was scrapped and there is no accountability over their deaths,” he chimed in.

Both said that they were participating in the protest as students. They had turned up at Jantar Mantar only in the final week of the protest, when the campaign started spreading to other parts of the country. “We would have come earlier but we had gone home for holidays,” Ajaz explained. They decided to join the protest as soon as they were back in Delhi.

Neither had informed their parents about visiting the protest site. “They would have never allowed us because they are worried about our safety,” said Arif. “They are more worried because of our religious identity.”

Ajaz worried that his family would get even more anxious if they found out that he had gone to the protest wearing a kurta pyjama – attire seen as traditionally Muslim. “I am due for a very harsh scolding if they come to know,” he admitted.

That the Cockroach Janta Party appeared to be dodging questions about their vulnerability as Muslim protesters did not bother the two friends. “That's a discussion for later,” Arif reasoned. “At this moment, the protest is for the NEET paper leak and resignation of the education minister.”

Ajaz, his friend, echoed him. “This time, the focus should be on education,” he said.

Despite its success in getting Dharmendra Pradhan to resign, the cockroach campaign continues to be criticised for its approach to questions about Muslims. One recurring issue that keeps coming up in such criticism is its position on the prolonged incarceration of student-activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam.

When asked about this issue, Aafreen Nawaz, one of the Cockroach Janta Party’s spokespersons, told Scroll that the outfit had a “limited goal”.

“Our main agenda has been reform in the education system and the resignation of Pradhan,” she said. “We are refraining from raising other topics. It's a conscious decision.”

Talking about issues like communal politics and discrimination on the basis of religious identity may not resonate with the public at large, Nawaz added. However, she also pointed out that the party had only come into being two months ago and was in the process of “building our stance” on a range of issues.

“Education is a topic which is common and has resonance among vast sections of society,” she contended. “From day one, our leader Abhijeet Dipke has been saying that we won't allow the politics of Hindu-Muslim in these protests. If we were to be distracted by communal politics then we will never be able to concentrate on the problems we are facing.”

Practical politics?

Even so, many Muslims who took part in the protest were drawn to it because of the very issues that the campaign had avoided confronting.

Until about a week back, Wahid, a 28-year-old doctor in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, had no plans of showing up at Jantar Mantar. Though he had been following news about it closely on social media, making the 700-km journey from Indore to Delhi just to attend the protest seemed difficult, given his busy schedule.

But a chance encounter with a heart-attack patient compelled him to change his mind. “I was on emergency duty in my hospital when the patient was brought in for treatment,” Wahid recalled. “We immediately thrombolysed [method of dissolving blood clots in veins or arteries] him and saved his life.”

While the patient was recuperating, Wahid began talking to a fellow Muslim colleague about how the Delhi Police had beaten up protesters in Delhi. At one point, the patient apparently removed his oxygen mask and butted into the conversation to blame Muslims for the protest and praise the prime minister.

Wahid remembered feeling taken aback by the hold that misinformation had on common people like the patient. “I told him ‘Sir, you are not well. Whatever you are saying is right. Please wear the mask.’,” he recollected.

But the exchange left Wahid feeling disturbed. “I decided that now I have to go to Jantar Mantar,” he underlined. “I am here after cancelling all my patients’ appointments for three days. I will volunteer as a doctor here for some time before heading back.”

What did Wahid make of the Cockroach Janta Party’s decision to avoid talking about issues pertaining to Muslim identity? In his view, it was a practical call.

“The fact is that whenever the name of Muslims comes up, it distracts from everything else,” he argued. “If they bring the Muslim angle into it, it will be easier for the government to crack down on these protests.”

For other young Muslims who decided to join the protest in the final week, questions about the sincerity of those leading the cockroach campaign still persisted. But they took a backseat because, in their view, the issue had become much bigger than Sonam Wangchuk or the Cockroach Janta Party.

“The turning point for me was the police brutality in Delhi,” said Akhtarista Ansari, a 26-year-old researcher who attended the protest in Goa. “Yes, I will continue to question this party for not speaking about political prisoners. But how can I not participate in a movement like this? We cannot stop hoping.”

Questions that remain

Those from the community who kept their distance from the protests recognise why others decided to set aside their inhibitions. Zehra, the Delhi-based artist, said she saw how this had become a moment of “catharsis” for many young Indian Muslims who were “letting off some steam” at Jantar Mantar. But she could not bring herself to do the same.

“People like me are cynical for a reason,” she contended. “The wound from CAA [Citizenship Amendment Act] is so fresh. And then you keep scratching it every time you read the news.”

If the campaign had some sincere Muslim leaders who did not shy away from confronting the problem of communalism, Zehra reckoned that she, too, would have joined the protesters in Delhi.

Other Muslims Scroll spoke to were even willing to settle for less.

Former journalist Kainat S, 34, said she would participate in any protest irrespective of who was leading it as long as it was inclusive and raised the issues of those she saw as the oppressed sections of Indian society. But she had skipped going to the protest which took place in Kolkata, her city, last week because it did not meet those conditions.

“My grief is that the suffering of the country’s oppressed people – not only Muslims, but also the Other Backward Classes, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes – deserved much more rage than what is happening right now,” she complained. “A bulk of the people who make up this country are not upper-middle class. Their protests don’t get this kind of attention.”

One example which Kainat offered to buttress her point was the disenfranchisement caused by the special intensive revision of voter rolls in West Bengal earlier this year. Most of those affected during the exercise were Bengali Muslims, according to a recent analysis conducted by the Sabar Institute, a Kolkata-based public policy research organisation.

For Fatima, the woman quoted at the start of the piece, the roll revision process in Bengal and elsewhere in the country underscored how little had changed despite the massive protests led by Muslims in 2019-’20. “This is the NRC [National Register of Citizens] that Umar and others had warned about,” she noted.

That so many fellow Indians had not heeded those warnings has left young Muslims like Fatima feeling bitter. And after the recent protests, when some of her Hindu friends lauded the courage of the Gen Z protesters, it felt like they were rubbing salt into her wounds.

“Don’t they realise that we did all of this before?” asked Fatima. “Is our blood less important than theirs? They are so hurt at being called cockroaches today. But where was this sense of hurt when we were called termites?”

The Cockroach Janta Party said on Tuesday that a Supreme Court directive from earlier in the day allowing investigation in existing cases registered against those who took part in the youth protests last week was “wholly unacceptable”, and described it as “uninformed”.

Saurav Das, the chief spokesperson for the political campaign, said that the group has a “credible apprehension” that the Union government and Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states may “seek to use and weaponise” the order to continue filing and investigating first information reports against individual protesters and “subject them to great harassment”.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court had allowed the authorities in Delhi and other states to proceed with investigations in cases that have been registered.

However, it directed that no coercive action should be taken against protesting students and that minors who had been detained should be released, as long as they did not have any “criminal antecedents”.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant also directed the police authorities to preserve all surveillance camera footage, drone footage and camera recordings relating to the protests as a measure of “abundant precaution”.

Das, however, said in a social media post that the direction allowing investigations to continue “stands in direct contradiction” with the assurance given to the Cockroach Janta Party by the Union government on Saturday that FIRs against protesters would be withdrawn and that none of them would be targeted only for participating in the demonstrations.

“A solemn public assurance given to thousands of young students and protesters cannot be diluted, undermined, or rendered meaningless through subsequent legal developments, in a surreptitious manner,” Das said. “It only results in breach of public trust.”

He further stated that the court’s interim order still places the onus of withdrawing or pursuing cases on the executive and underlined that “the court has not mandated that governments must definitely continue with the FIRs”.

Das went on to highlight that the Union government’s deadline to honour the guarantees that it made to the CJP on July 25 expires on Tuesday.

“Failing this, and as previously declared, the Cockroach Janta Party will have no option but to resume its nationwide protest to protect the students and young protesters who stood up not for themselves alone, but for the future of this nation,” Das added.

🚨URGENT STATEMENT🚨

The interim order passed by the Supreme Court of India in the batch of PILs related to the CJP protest must ring alarm bells across the country. In particular, Direction No. 4, which permits governments to proceed with existing FIRs and carry out…

— Saurav Das (@SauravDassss) July 28, 2026

Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the campaign echoed this stand, and said the CJP would “respond with a massive peaceful protest soon” if the police harassment of students continues.

He urged the government “to stop targeting and witch-hunting students”.

If the harassment of students at the hands of the police continues, the Cockroach Janta Party will respond with a massive peaceful protest soon.

The Govt must stop targeting and witch-hunting students.

— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) July 28, 2026

The agitation in Delhi started on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union education minister at the time, over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Solidarity protests were held in several states. Pradhan resigned on Saturday.

The Cockroach Janta Party has maintained that it withdrew its call for a nationwide protest on Saturday only after the Union government assured it that “no punitive action would be taken against any protester, either now or in the future, in any BJP-ruled or NDA [National Democratic Alliance]-ruled states”.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Also read:

• Follow Scroll’s coverage of the youth protests here

• Family of Muslim volunteer at Jantar Mantar protest released by UP Police

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party government for the police crackdown on youth protests, remarking that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should change his “dil ka angle [heart’s angle], not camera angle”.

On Thursday, the prime minister had posted a late-night video message on social media assuring strict action on cases of paper leaks in competitive examinations, amid nationwide youth protests over irregularities in the process.

A day later, he posted another video thanking viewers for the responses and positive suggestions on the previous night.

Speaking during the debate on the 2026 Public Examinations Prevention of Unfair Means Amendment Bill, Vadra questioned the government’s handling of the student protests and asked who had authorised the use of force against demonstrators.

“The whole country, not merely Congress is asking – what was the need, and who, the Home Minister or the Prime Minister – allowed the lathis, tear gas, water canons, pellet guns and AK47 to be used on students on July 20,” she asked.

She also questioned whether the protesters “were terrorists”.

Vadra alleged that the examination system had failed, claiming there had been 152 paper leaks over the past decade affecting crores of students, while “not a single culprit” or member of the “paper leak mafia” had been punished.

The Wayanad MP urged the government to restore students’ trust by correcting its approach and abandoning arrogance.

Vadra also criticised BJP MPs for welcoming former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at Parliament after his resignation.

“The Education Minister (Dharmendra Pradhan) resigned in the most shameful manner, and he was welcomed as a superstar in the Parliament at the Makar Dwar,” she said.

She then went on to criticise Prahlad Joshi, the new education minister, saying he was “a person who expressed consent and even happiness over the release of those convicted of raping a pregnant woman,” ANI reported.

She was referencing his 2022 comments defending the Union government’s approval to release 11 men convicted and sentenced to life in prison in the Bilkis Bano case

“I don’t find anything wrong in it as it is done as a process of the law,” Joshi had told NDTV.

In response to Vadra, Joshi demanded that she authenticate her statements and claimed that the Congress leader was spreading misinformation, ANI reported.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju claimed Vadra’s comments amounted to “character assassination within Parliament” and asked that the comments be expunged.

The agitation in Delhi started on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union education minister at the time, over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams. Solidarity protests were held in several states. Pradhan resigned on Saturday, following which Joshi was given the additional charge of the education portfolio.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Neerad Pandhariande.

A Muslim man who had been serving food and water to protesters at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar has moved the Supreme Court, alleging that he was illegally detained and harassed by the police, Live Law reported.

Junaid Malik has also alleged that members of his family were subjected to coercive action without due process being followed.

On Saturday, Malik’s family members were released after being detained in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district, their lawyer had confirmed to Scroll.

In his petition, Malik, who claims to be a law graduate and a social worker, has alleged that he and his friend were “picked up” by Delhi Police officers on Friday while returning from the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after taking an anti-rabies injection, Live Law reported.

They were kept inside a vehicle for five to six hours, the plea stated. The officers snatched Malik’s phone and forced him to unlock it, it added.

The plea further alleges that Malik and his friend were detained overnight in what appeared to be an “interrogation room” and questioned by senior police officers, the legal news outlet reported.

The officers asked Malik to disclose the source of funds for providing food and water at the protest site, the petition said. It also alleged that the officers abused Malik and threatened to invoke the National Security Act against him.

On the morning of July 25, Malik, along with his friend, was left in a forest around 16 km from the Dehradun-Mussoorie road, the plea said. They were also allegedly asked by the officers to not switch on their mobile phones for an hour.

The application also alleged that on July 23, his father was “picked up” from their Ghaziabad residence and questioned for several hours about the family’s bank accounts and Malik’s whereabouts, Live Law reported.

It further alleged that on July 24, a team of 10 to 12 police personnel raided the family’s home, searched the premises, damaged furniture and sought identity documents and bank account details of family members.

Malik has sought directions from the court to prevent any further coercive action against his family and to ensure that the police follow due process during the investigation, Live Law reported.

The agitation began in Delhi on June 6, when the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign began a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union education minister.

Pradhan resigned on Saturday afternoon, after which the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign called off its protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

A group of former bureaucrats on Tuesday urged the Uttar Pradesh government to put on hold plans to demolish 38 of the 40 buildings at Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, until all legal options for regularising the structures are exhausted.

The Constitutional Conduct Group wrote to Chief Minister Adityanath expressing concern about the demolition order issued by the Rampur Development Authority on July 15.

The university was founded by jailed Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan. The authorities have said that all the buildings in the university campus, except the medical college and the academic block, were constructed “without approval”.

On Monday, the Moradabad Divisional Commissioner’s court stayed the demolition until the final hearing, The Hindu reported.

The retired civil servants said that while planning laws and judicial directions must be complied with, the “far-reaching consequences” of demolishing the buildings require careful consideration.

“A university is more than its buildings,” the letter read. “It represents the aspirations of thousands of students, the dedication of its faculty, the livelihoods of its employees, and years of investment in educational infrastructure.”

It also said that large-scale demolitions would disrupt classrooms, laboratories, libraries, hostels and other essential facilities, threatening academic activities and affecting the region’s educational ecosystem.

The former bureaucrats urged the state government to “exhaust” every legal option to regularise the buildings before demolition. They added that this could be done while ensuring compliance with structural safety, fire, environmental and public health norms.

“Only those structures that present genuine safety risks or cannot legally be regularised should be considered for demolition,” the letter said.

The 47 signatories to the letter include Punjab’s former Director General of Police Julio Ribeiro, Delhi’s former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former Indian ambassador Gautam Mukhopadhaya and former Indian Administrative Service officer and activist Harsh Mander.

University defends construction

The action was initiated based on a report by the regional junior engineer alleging unauthorised structures on the campus, Rampur District Magistrate Ajay Kumar Dwivedi said.

He said that the university management had been served a notice and given an opportunity to present its case.

The university submitted its reply on July 8, while a personal hearing was conducted on July 15.

During the hearing, the university said that the Singankhera village, where the campus is located, was not in the Rampur Development Authority’s jurisdiction before September 27, 2024. Therefore, the university argued, no approval was required for its building plans from the authorities.

The institution further contended that the buildings had been constructed much earlier and could not be declared unauthorised under the current rules.

However, the development authority rejected the arguments, saying that buildings in areas that are subsequently brought under its jurisdiction can be considered as lawful only if they had secured the approval from the authorities when they were constructed.

The order further alleged that the university management was aware of the need for prior approval, as it had obtained permission from the zila panchayat for two buildings but had constructed the other structures without sanction.

The university, established in 2006, was a prominent project for Khan. However, since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, the university has been involved in legal battles pertaining to land encroachment and alleged lease violations.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Sara Varghese.

The Supreme Court directed states to release minors taken into custody during the youth protests against the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations, as well as those without any prior criminal record. The court said it may set up a high-powered investigation team to examine allegations of police excesses during the July 20 march to Parliament.

During the protest, several demonstrators were injured after the security personnel used lathis, fired tear gas and pellet guns to disperse the crowd.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant was on Tuesday hearing a batch of petitions alleging that the police used excessive force against the protesters. The petitioners sought nationwide guidelines to regulate police action during protests, including a ban on deploying plainclothes personnel for crowd-control duties. Read on.

The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology summoned social media platform Meta after a video posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefly taken down on Facebook. The development came even as the platform said that the video “was removed in error and has since been restored”.

Ministry Secretary S Krishnan said the company’s reasoning that it happened because of a “technical error” was not “acceptable in its entirety”.

On Thursday, the prime minister posted a late-night video message on social media assuring strict action on cases of paper leaks in competitive examinations, amid nationwide youth protests over irregularities in the process. On Tuesday morning, the video was briefly unavailable for users in India. Read on.

A group of former bureaucrats has urged the Uttar Pradesh government to put on hold plans to demolish 38 of the 40 buildings at Mohammad Ali Jauhar University until all legal options for regularising the structures are exhausted. The Constitutional Conduct Group wrote to Chief Minister Adityanath expressing concern about the demolition order issued by the Rampur Development Authority on July 15.

The university was founded by jailed Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan. The authorities have said that all the buildings in the university campus, except the medical college and the academic block, were constructed “without approval”.

The retired civil servants said that while planning laws and judicial directions must be complied with, the “far-reaching consequences” of demolishing the buildings require careful consideration. The group said that large-scale demolitions would disrupt classrooms, laboratories, libraries, hostels and other essential facilities, threatening academic activities and affecting the region’s educational ecosystem. Read on.

The Rapid Action Force fired a pellet gun at those protesting alleged mismanagement in public exams on July 20 on the orders of a Delhi Police officer. The newspaper reported that it had accessed a general diary entry by the security forces mentioning the directions.

The force fired two rounds from an anti-riot gun on the directions of a deputy commissioner of police-rank officer, it added.

At least four persons were injured in the incident on July 20. This was the first time that a pellet gun has been used in Delhi against unarmed protesters.

A day after the pellet guns were fired, the Delhi Police had denied using the weapon against the protesters. However, reports said that the pellet guns had been carried by the Rapid Action Force, a unit of the Central Reserve Police Force that was also deployed at the protest, as part of its riot-control equipment. Read on.

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The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Tuesday summoned Meta’s global head of public policy after a video posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefly taken down, ANI reported.

Secretary S Krishnan told the news agency that the company contended it happened because of a “technical error” but said that the reasoning was not “acceptable in its entirety”.

On Thursday, the prime minister posted a late-night video message on social media assuring strict action on cases of paper leaks in competitive examinations, amid nationwide youth protests over irregularities in the process.

However, on Tuesday morning, the video was briefly unavailable, Economic Times Tech reported.

Users in India saw a notice that access had been withheld in the region following a legal request.

“The content was removed in error and has since been restored,” PTI quoted an unidentified Meta spokesperson as saying.

Krishnan told ANI that the removal of authorised content was “extremely disturbing” and should not be repeated.

He added that the social media platform’s apology was a “good step” but maintained that it was not satisfactory.

“What was done was wrong,” the secretary said, adding that the ministry has sought further details from the platform.

“We will follow this up to see that there are systemic corrections to ensure that such instances do not recur,” he said

The development follows a direction from the Delhi Police to social media platforms to remove posts and videos with remarks targeting Modi during the nationwide protests.

At least 450 posts were identified by the police’s social media monitoring team that shared alleged deepfake videos and content generated using artificial intelligence during the protests.

The content was posted online during the youth protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign to demand the resignation of Pradhan over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive exams.

On July 20, thousands joined the protest in Delhi two days after the police forcibly took activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike for three weeks, to hospital. Their march to Parliament was met with a crackdown by the police. Dozens were injured as the police used lathis, fired tear gas shells and pellet guns against the demonstrators.

The police action turbocharged the agitation, which spread to other parts of the country and forced Pradhan to resign on Saturday.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Also read:

• Opinion: The Modi government doesn’t understand Gen Z’s protest memes – but that doesn’t
• ‘Daddy, detain me’: The memes that humbled Modi

The Maharashtra Public Service Commission on Monday denied allegations of a paper leak in the drug inspector recruitment examination after the Opposition alleged large scale irregularities and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe.

The autonomous body said that despite this, it has ordered a police investigation into the alleged irregularities given the “sensitivity of the case”.

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) Rohit Pawar claimed the question paper for the examination that was held on March 22, had been circulated on WhatsApp two days prior to individuals linked to the Kautilya Academy in Nandurbar, The Times of India reported.

“A fee of Rs 12 lakh was paid for the paper, of which Rs 5 lakh was paid in advance,” the Opposition leader said.

He alleged that around 90 of the 100 questions in the examination matched the leaked document.

He also alleged that students had submitted complaints to the commission on July 21, but no action had been taken, and called for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation, PTI reported.

He further sought a forensic examination of the WhatsApp screenshots, retrieval of call records and chats, and a stay on the final results and appointments until the inquiry is completed, India Today reported.

The Maharashtra Public Service Commission confirmed that it had received a complaint on July 21 and asked the complainant to provide evidence.

According to the commission, further material, including WhatsApp screenshots claiming the paper had been circulated before the examination, was submitted on July 23.

Following this, the complainant and other individuals named in the complaint were asked to appear before it. However, they did not do so.

The commission claimed that it later received another email from the complainant on July 26 stating that the allegations were incorrect and had been made “jokingly”.

The commission has now alleged that the second person had done so after failing the examination and “spread the rumor of a paper leak in hopes of having the exam cancelled and re-conducted”.

Meanwhile, Praveen Patil, the director of Kautilya Academy, has denied any involvement in a paper leak, PTI reported.

He said the academy had no role in any wrongdoing and that the students concerned had approached him only for interview guidance.

The developments come following nationwide protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign demanding the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Union education minister on account of the alleged mismanagement of a series of competitive exams. Pradhan resigned as the education minister on July 25, after which the Cockroach Janta Party withdrew its agitation.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed states to release minors taken into custody during the youth protests against the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive examinations, as well as those without any prior criminal record, Live Law reported.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant was hearing a batch of petitions alleging that the police used excessive force against protesters marching to Parliament in Delhi on July 20.

During the protest, several demonstrators were injured after the security personnel used lathis, fired tear gas and pellet guns to disperse the crowd.

The petitioners also pointed out instances of the police in Bihar using excessive force against protesters who were demonstrating in solidarity with the youth agitation in Delhi.

On Saturday, three protesters were injured after the police opened fire on demonstrators in Bihar’s Siwan district.

Following this, a batch of petitions was filed in the Supreme Court, seeking nationwide guidelines to regulate police action during protests, including a ban on the deployment of plainclothes personnel for crowd-control duties.

The petitioners also sought guidelines to regulate the use of prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. The provision grants the authorities the power to issue orders in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger.

Further, the petitioners urged the court to order an independent investigation into the police action during the July 20 protest in Delhi.

On Tuesday, the court observed that it would consider setting up a high-powered investigation team to conduct a “fair and independent” inquiry into the allegations of police excesses, The Hindu reported.

“The allegations made by the petitioners prima facie make out a case for an independent probe,” the newspaper quoted Kant as saying. “...the inquiry must be scientific and evidence-based. We do not want only prima facie findings.”

The bench also directed the police authorities to preserve all CCTV footage, drone footage and camera recordings relating to the protests as a measure of “abundant precaution”.

On Monday, the Supreme Court verbally observed that the right to protest peacefully is guaranteed by the Constitution and that excessive use of force by the police on agitators cannot be justified

“Just because there is an agitation does not mean there should be lathi-charge,” said Kant. “Self-evolved discipline is needed, which is essential to the democratic process.”

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

On July 25, Bulet Kumar Gond had gone to the district magistrate office in Bihar’s Siwan town to get his caste and residence certificates made.

That day, the All India Students’ Association or AISA had called for a Bihar bandh to protest against a police lathicharge on students in Patna three days ago.

The students in the Bihar capital had been demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, as part of a nationwide agitation called by the satirical outfit Cockroach Janta Party.

In Siwan, hundreds of students had joined the AISA protest, leading to clashes with the police in several areas.

Gond, a 20-year-old from Dumrahar Bujurg village, 40 km from the Siwan district headquarters, ended up getting caught in one.

On the way to the district magistrate office, Gond recalls that the police and the students had faced off against each other. “Bricks and stones were being pelted from the police’s side as well as from the students' side,” he said.

As he saw many others skirt the protest and head for the government office, Gond followed their lead. “No one was getting hurt or harmed there,” he said. “I thought let me pass from the side to do my work.”

But just as he tried to walk past a few vendors, a bullet hit his leg. “I fell down right there,” he told Scroll.

Gond was one of three students shot in Siwan that day, as the Bihar police cracked down on youth protests that had erupted across the state in support of the Cockroach Janta Party campaign.

Gond was not just injured by a bullet. As he fell on the ground, he alleged that he was brutally beaten up by the police. Despite his pleas for medical help, he was made to walk on one leg to the police station, where he lay writhing for almost an hour before he was taken to a hospital, he told Scroll.

We also spoke to a second victim of police firing in Siwan, a bystander shot in the neck. “The police opened fire suddenly without any reason and provocation,” Akash Yadav, a 21-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, said. “I could have been hit in the head. Anyone could have been killed.”

On Monday, the Bihar Police said it had registered three first information reports over the firing that left the three young men injured during protests in Siwan.

The police crackdown on student protests in Bihar has been remarkably harsh, with a constable firing an AK-47 assault rifle at JP Chowk in Siwan. Following countrywide outrage, the constable was suspended.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Kumar Jha has moved the Supreme Court seeking that first information reports be reigstered against police officers who opened fire at protesters in Bihar.

Beatings after bullet

Moments after the bullet hit Gond’s leg, he told Scroll, the police “came running” towards him.

A friend tried to lift him. “But I couldn't get up, my leg started giving way,” he told Scroll.

With a great effort, his friend made him sit and tied a cloth around his bleeding leg. “By then, the police had reached us,” he said.

Immediately, they started beating both of them with fibre-glass canes.

“I said, ‘Sir, I have been shot.’ My friend said, ‘Sir, he has been shot’,” Gond said. “But they did not stop. They just kept beating us continuously.”

After a few minutes, Gond’s friend ran away. The police then ordered the injured young man to walk to the police station. Gond said he kept telling the police that he had been shot and could not walk.

“One of them grabbed one of my hands and said, ‘You will walk just like this, on one leg. Let’s see how you won't,’” Gond said.

As another baton hit him, Gond stood up somehow on one leg. “For about 100-150 meters, I hopped on one leg.”

Once at the police station, Gond said he lay down in pain. “I could not sit properly, I kept asking them to take me to the hospital. I was screaming for water, writhing in pain, my leg was bleeding badly, but no one was listening to me.”

One of the police officials even told him: “You will stay here for an hour, only then will you go to the hospital.”

After about 45-50 minutes of this ordeal, an ambulance was called. Gond was taken to the Sadar Hospital in Siwan, which referred him to a private hospital in Patna.

On Monday, as Gond lay in the hospital bed waiting for a surgery, he was disconsolate. “I am worried,” he said. “Will I be able to walk again?”

‘They opened fire without warning’

On Saturday afternoon, Akash Yadav had stepped out to buy cake in Siwan.

The 21-year-old had just arrived in Siwan from Delhi to be with his fiancee and celebrate his birthday.

“The protests were going on and I went outside,” Yadav told Scroll from his hospital bed in Patna.

He said he saw several young men out on the streets in protest. Five or six police personnel were watching them.

“The police did not stop me from moving forward,” he said. “So I kept walking. I saw them dragging and beating up the boys.”

The police action agitated the protestors and clashes broke out, Yadav said.

“Immediately, without a warning, the police opened fire,” he said. “They did not fire to scare the protestors away. I saw a policeman aim at protestors and fire a pistol. One of the bullets hit my neck and passed through it.”

Yadav demanded action against the police officer who injured him. “I want the administration to take action against him. I can identify the person,” he said. “I even have a video of the police from that day.”

He countered the statement of the Siwan superintendent of police, who had claimed that no one had been injured in the police firing. “Are we in the hospital for nothing?” Yadav asked. “They have not even carried out a proper inquiry. They did not mention anywhere that I was hit by the pistol.’

‘It was brutal’

According to a statement by the Bihar police, 694 people were taken into custody across the state on Saturday for taking part in the protests. Of them, 339 were minors.

Scroll spoke to a 15-year-old who was thrashed badly by the police during the student protests at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on July 25. The video of his assault went viral on social media.

On July 25, Medhansh had walked 3 km from his home to Patna’s Gandhi Maidan to join other students who had responded to AISA’s call for protest.

“I had no money, so I walked,” the Class 10 student told Scroll. “I went because it is a cause I want to support, because [this is] going to affect my future too.”

Medhansh had attended a protest in support of the Cockroach Janta Party on July 22 as well.

On Saturday, he fashioned a wig for himself to protect his head and joined the protestors near Gandhi Maidan.

“They were just screaming and chanting slogans,” he said

But after some time, both protestors and the police began throwing stones at each other. The police released tear gas to control the crowd.

Medhansh and other students dispersed and ran into another lane. As the situation seemed to calm down, Medhansh started to talk with a reporter.

In the middle of his interview, he said, a big posse of police officers arrived. “I ran instantly. I turned the corner, and jumped over a fence. But there was another group of police officers in front. I was surrounded.”

Medhansh said that at least 13 or 14 police officials began raining blows on him. “They weren't only using lathis, they also were using pieces of wood,” he said. “I ran, but they hit me even while I tried to run away.”

After a while, the police gave up the chase.

But Medhansh was left with several bruises – on his arms and legs and one eye.

Medhansh criticised the police for hitting teenagers and children, instead of detaining them. “How can you lathi charge innocent teenagers and children?” he asked. “That, too, with fibre canes. It’s genuinely brutal.”

He said the police should have used other methods of restraint. “At least, that will not put your life in danger,” he said.

Varuni Poorba, national president of Disha Students’ Organisation, one of the groups that had called for the July 25 protest, claimed that the police used excessive force and even filed false cases against activists mobilising the students.

“In Patna, more arrests were made but the police brutality was mainly in districts like Siwan, Bhagalpur and Jahanabad, among others,” Poorba said.