The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition by Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan challenging the rejection of her candidature for the Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and AS Chandurkar declined to exercise its writ jurisdiction, citing Article 329 of the Constitution. The provision bars courts from interfering in electoral matters, and says that any polls to either House of Parliament can only be challenged through an election petition.

Election petitions can be filed for inquiring into the validity of a poll. These pleas must be filed in the High Court of the particular state in which the poll was conducted

However, the bench allowed the Congress leader to file an election petition. The bench also clarified that it was not commenting on the merits of the case.

The court did not accept Natarajan’s argument that writ jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution could be invoked to deal with “glaring and manifest” errors in the rejection of the nomination, Live Law reported. The court said that if it were to do so, it would lead to the reading of a principle that does not exist in Article 329.

Article 32 guarantees citizens the right to move the Supreme Court directly to enforce their fundamental rights.

Natarajan was the Congress’ sole candidate for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. Her nomination was rejected on Tuesday after the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that she had withheld information in her affidavit about a criminal case against her in Telangana.

However, her lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi contended that only criminal cases where charges have been framed need to be disclosed. The Congress leader had only received a notice from a magistrate under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Live Law quoted Singhvi as saying.

The lawyer said that the court in Telangana had not taken cognisance of the complaint based on which the notice was issued.

Rajya Sabha polls

The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly was scheduled to elect three members to the Rajya Sabha on June 18. With the Assembly’s effective strength at 229, a candidate requires 58 first-preference votes to win.

Of these seats, the BJP has 164 MLAs excluding the speaker. While the Congress has 63 MLAs, its ally Bharat Adivasi Party has one.

The BJP had the numbers to win two of the three seats as it needed 116 votes to do so. However, it will be left with 48 votes that are not sufficient to clinch the third seat.

Despite this, the BJP fielded three candidates, raising concerns in the Congress about cross-voting and defections.

On Tuesday, before Natarajan’s candidature was rejected, the Congress flew most of its MLAs from Bhopal to Bengaluru, where the party is in power, while keeping a few senior legislators back in Madhya Pradesh, where it is in the Opposition.

On Thursday, all three candidates of the BJP were declared as elected unopposed by the returning officer.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Union government on Thursday barred industrial and commercial consumers from purchasing petrol and diesel from retail outlets amid supply disruptions caused by the war in West Asia.

The industrial and commercial consumers would have to procure the fuels only from dedicated supply channels, which they cannot resell.

The order issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will be in force for 90 days, unless it is withdrawn before that.

The ministry stated that the order was issued after “abnormal increases” were observed in the sale of petrol and diesel at retail outlets in parts of the country.

This was attributed to industrial and commercial consumers shifting their sourcing to retail outlets because of the difference in price as compared to bulk purchases, the government said.

The shift had resulted in fuel supplies meant for retail consumers getting diverted and had created the “potential for localised shortages and disruption of essential services”, the order said.

The government said that the war in West Asia had been hurting global fuel supply chains, shipping and the availability of petroleum products.

This necessitated “prudent management and conservation of available supplies and raises the need to deal with such unpredictable situations in a formal manner”, the order added.

The prices of petrol and diesel have been increased by Rs 7.5 per litre since mid-May.

India imports 88% of its crude oil needs and about half of its natural gas requirement. This mostly comes through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blocked because of the war.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Sneha.

Three members of a family were killed and two others were injured after a fire broke out in a five-storey residential building in southeast Delhi’s Govindpuri area on Friday morning, PTI reported.

The fire was reported at 2.31 am from a residential building in Tughlakabad Extension, police said.

“Eight occupants were rescued from the structure and shifted to Safdarjung Hospital and AIIMS [All India Institute for Medical Sciences] Trauma Centre for treatment,” PTI quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari as saying.

The three dead were identified as Guddi (50), her son Pankaj (28) and daughter Soni (20). All of them lived on the third floor of the building.

Another daughter of Guddi, Moni (18), and the woman’s 70-year-old mother sustained critical injuries and are undergoing treatment, PTI reported.

Preliminary inquiry suggests that the fire may have been caused by an electrical short circuit on the ground floor of the building. Three scooters, two motorcycles and a bicycle parked in the ground-floor parking area also caught fire, ANI quoted Delhi Fire Service as saying.

The blaze took place more than a week after 22 persons were killed in a fire at a building in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar on June 3.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Maharashtra Police on Thursday registered a case against comedian Pranit More and others for posting allegedly objectionable content online, The Hindu reported.

More, Himanshu Jangra and Dr Sejal Pawar, among other persons, were booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to making sexually coloured remarks, distributing obscene materials and circulating false information intended to promote enmity between groups.

They were also booked under a section of the Information Technology Act for publishing obscene material.

The cybercrime department filed the case after a video was widely shared online in which Jangra expressed entitlement to physical intimacy in return for spending Rs 370 for a biryani on a date with a woman. He had also claimed to have pressured the woman to accompany him to a “dark” park despite her repeated reluctance.

Pawar, an MBBS student at a hospital in Mumbai, had made allegedly objectionable comments about the reproductive organs of a male cadaver.

Both persons were part of the audience in separate episodes of a comedy show hosted by More. Video clips of the episodes had been widely shared on social media.

The views expressed on the show had led to criticism online.

Jangra had been sacked from his job after the video of his comments was widely shared online.

The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors said that Pawar’s comments were inappropriate and not in line with the dignity of the profession.

On Thursday, Pawar apologised for the comments. “Looking back, I can see how my words could be interpreted differently from what I meant,” The Times of India quoted Pawar as saying.

She said that she did not intend to disrespect anyone.

On Thursday, the National Commission for Women took cognisance of the matter. It directed the Haryana Police chief to take action in the matter for “remarks allegedly glorifying sexual coercion”. More and Jangra were summoned by the panel on June 22.

The episode involving Jangra had been recorded in Haryana, according to the commission.

The panel said that it was concerned about the content of the video and the “manner in which the alleged conduct was trivialised and presented as entertainment before a public audience”.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Around 4,000 electronic voting machines were destroyed in a fire at a government building in Kolkata, PTI quoted West Bengal minister Kaushik Chowdhury as saying on Thursday. The EVMs had been used in 10 constituencies during this year’s Assembly elections in the state, the minister said.

Chowdhury, the minister of state for fire and emergency services, said that it did not appear to be a “normal fire” and that the authorities were examining the possibility of sabotage.

The fire broke out on Wednesday at the nine-storey building in south Kolkata’s Alipore area. The building also housed the South 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad office, among other departments, according to the Hindustan Times.

The zilla parishad is run by the Trinamool Congress, and the South 24 Parganas district is considered to be a bastion of the party’s National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

Chowdhury claimed that the fire started on the third floor, and questioned how it reached the seventh and eighth floors without affecting the fourth, fifth and sixth ones.

“An FIR was registered and an investigation has been initiated,” the minister was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times. “Forensic officials had come to collect samples. As the building was still hot, they faced difficulty in entering the floors that were gutted.”

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday questioned the West Bengal speaker’s decision to recognise expelled Trinamool Congress MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly without the consent of the political party, The Hindu reported.

On June 3, Ritabrata Banerjee claimed that Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose had accepted the claim of 58 of the party’s 80 MLAs to be the main Opposition in the state.

The stand taken by the 58 MLAs is being viewed as a challenge to party chief Mamata Banerjee, who is supporting Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Opposition leader in the House.

While hearing a petition filed by the Trinamool Congress challenging Bose’s decision, the bench observed that the person appointed as the Leader of the Opposition did not belong to any political party.

“He was expelled,” The Hindu quoted the bench as saying. “Can the speaker recognise a rebel leader as the leader of the Opposition without the consent of a political party?”

In response, the state, represented by Additional Advocate General Bilwadal Bhattacharya, sought time to file an affidavit along with all relevant records, including the order under challenge.

Advocate and TMC MP Kalyan Bandopadhyay, appearing for the petitioners, had submitted before the court that the Bose’s decision violated the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which governs the relationship between a political party and its MLAs.

The next hearing is slated for June 16.

TMC rift

Rebel TMC MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, who have been expelled from the party, have alleged that 14 of the signatures were forged in documents submitted to Bose in support of Chattopadhyay’s appointment.

On June 2, TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee sent a fresh letter to Bose, reiterating the party’s decision to appoint Chattopadhyay as leader of the Opposition.

A first information report was registered based on complaints filed by the expelled MLAs. The police are investigating Abhishek Banerjee, who signed the letter, in connection with the case.

On Thursday, the High Court granted interim protection from arrest to the TMC national general secretary in the case.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Also Read: Why the Trinamool Congress is collapsing like a house of cards

All state universities and higher educational institutions in Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Uttar Pradesh have been directed to set up “Dharmantaran Roktham cells” or anti-conversion cells, the Hindustan Times reported on Friday.

A letter from Governor Anandiben Patel’s secretariat dated May 28 instructed vice chancellors, directors of all state universities and institutes, and higher educational institutions, including medical institutes, to strengthen counselling services, monitoring systems, student welfare mechanisms, reporting protocols and establish safeguards, the newspaper reported.

The directions came after allegations that students are being influenced through inducement, psychological pressure or other unethical means into religious conversion, the letter added.

The governor’s directive follows a series of investigations linked to Lucknow’s King George Medical University in the last two years in connection with claims of a “love jihad” network being run from its campus.

Love jihad is a Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslim men trick Hindu women into romantic relationships with the aim of converting them to Islam. The Union home ministry has told Parliament that Indian law has no provision defining such a term.

While the BJP has supported the directive, calling it necessary to protect students from coercion, the Opposition Samajwadi Party has accused the government of trying to polarise society.

“If the governor is so concerned, she should first start forming an anti-BJP cell as charity begins at home,” Samajwadi Party spokesperson Abbas Haider was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times. “Both the BJP and RSS are creating communal divisions.”

Haider urged the government to improve medical education infrastructure in the state instead.

Uttar Pradesh has one of the strictest anti-conversion laws in the country. In July 2024, the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the 2024 Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Amendment Bill. An update to the 2021 anti-conversion law, the new Act allows anyone to file a complaint, makes punishments for offences more stringent and imposes stricter conditions for securing bail.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Every economy needs optimism. Investors respond to confidence, consumers spend when they feel secure and markets dislike panic. But optimism becomes counterproductive when it begins to substitute for introspection.

Contemporary public discourse on the Indian economy is increasingly characterised by a reassuring narrative: oil prices remain manageable, foreign exchange reserves comfortably finance imports, automobile sales indicate resilient consumption, agricultural output is stable despite climatic uncertainties, and India continues to be among the fastest-growing major economies in the world.

The depreciation of the rupee, we are told, is largely a consequence of global capital flows and a strengthening US dollar rather than domestic weakness.

None of these observations is inherently incorrect. India has indeed demonstrated remarkable macroeconomic resilience in the face of repeated global shocks. Foreign exchange reserves remain among the largest in the world, private consumption contributes more than half of GDP and growth continues to outpace most major economies.

Yet resilience is a description of an economy’s ability to absorb shocks. It is not, by itself, a development strategy. The more fundamental question is whether India possesses a coherent economic philosophy that can translate resilience into broad-based prosperity.

That question becomes particularly relevant when policymakers repeatedly describe India as a demand-driven economy. If household consumption accounts for nearly 56%-57% of GDP, then strengthening domestic demand should be the organising principle of economic policy. Demand-driven growth cannot be sustained merely through aggregate GDP expansion – it requires rising household incomes, productive employment, growing entrepreneurship and a confident middle class willing to consume and invest.

Instead, the current policy architecture appears caught between two competing impulses. On one side lies an expansive welfare state that reaches more than 81 crore beneficiaries through programmes such as PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, providing an essential social safety net by providing 5 kg of free food grain to beneficiaries in vulnerable households. On the other lies an industrial strategy centred on production-linked incentives and the creation of globally competitive national champions expected to drive investment and exports.

Both approaches are defensible and, indeed, necessary in a developing economy. Yet neither directly addresses the central challenge of a demand-driven growth model: expanding the productive employment, disposable incomes and purchasing power of ordinary households.

A resilient consumer economy cannot be built indefinitely on welfare transfers at one end and corporate incentives at the other. It requires a confident and expanding middle class capable of sustaining demand through rising real incomes. The “missing middle” in India’s policy imagination is not the poor or large corporations, but the ordinary household whose consumption ultimately determines the trajectory of a demand-driven economy.

Redistribution is a legitimate function of the state, particularly in a country where poverty and vulnerability remain significant. Yet welfare cannot become a substitute for productive employment. Equally, industrial policy cannot be reduced to identifying a few corporate winners.

Economist Dani Rodrik has consistently argued that successful industrial policy creates productive capabilities across an economy rather than merely subsidizing selected firms. South Korea did not become prosperous simply because it created Samsung – it simultaneously invested in education, technical skills, supplier ecosystems and institutions that allowed thousands of firms to participate in growth.

India’s growth story reveals an uncomfortable paradox. It is the world’s fifth-largest economy and among the fastest growing, yet its nominal per capita income remains close to US$3,000, placing it far below many middle-income economies.

Aggregate GDP and individual prosperity are not interchangeable concepts. A demand-driven economy ultimately depends on millions of households possessing the confidence and capacity to participate in markets as consumers, entrepreneurs and investors. Rising inequality and stagnant purchasing power weaken precisely the foundation on which such an economy rests.

More than infrastructure

This brings us to an issue that receives far less attention than growth rates or exchange rates: the legitimacy of markets.

Economist Kaushik Basu has argued that markets function efficiently only when citizens perceive them to be legitimate. Legitimacy is not created by legislation alone. It emerges when people believe that opportunities are broadly accessible, contracts are fairly enforced, taxation is predictable and economic success results from innovation rather than proximity to power.

Nobel laureate Douglass North similarly demonstrated that institutions reduce uncertainty and thereby encourage investment, entrepreneurship and long-run growth.

Development, therefore, cannot be measured solely by kilometers of highways or numbers of airports. Infrastructure is indispensable, but markets also require trustworthy institutions, regulatory stability, judicial efficiency and social cohesion.

Governments perform two distinct functions in a market economy: they are market-makers, creating the physical and regulatory architecture for exchange, and they are market-legitimisers, ensuring that citizens continue to believe that participation in markets is worthwhile and fair.

This distinction matters because market confidence ultimately shapes investment decisions. Policymakers frequently explain weak net foreign investment, rupee depreciation or capital outflows by pointing to global interest rates, oil prices or temporary shifts in investor sentiment, including the current enthusiasm surrounding artificial intelligence in the United States. These factors undoubtedly influence capital movements. But they do not tell the entire story.

American economist Albert Hirschman’s classic framework of “Exit, Voice and Loyalty” offers a richer perspective. When confidence in institutions weakens, economic actors have three choices. They may remain loyal despite dissatisfaction. They may exercise their voice and demand reform. Or they may quietly choose to exit by relocating capital, businesses or talent elsewhere.

Weak net foreign direct investment, increasing outward investment by Indian firms and the growing migration of highly skilled professionals should therefore not be viewed merely as isolated statistics; they are signals about institutional confidence. It has been argued that such exits are a natural consequence of India’s emergence as a “mature economy”, where early investors monetise their gains and redeploy capital elsewhere.

While this may explain part of the story, maturity alone cannot become a convenient explanation for persistent investor exits. A genuinely mature economy is characterised not merely by capital mobility, but by strong institutions, predictable regulation and the simultaneous ability to attract new long-term investment. The more relevant question, therefore, is not why capital leaves, but whether enough confidence exists for fresh capital to replace it.

The same logic applies to the rupee. Exchange rates are not simply numbers. They aggregate millions of decentralised judgments about an economy’s future. They reflect expectations about productivity, institutional quality, policy credibility and long-term growth prospects. Dismissing currency movements entirely as externally driven risks overlooking the domestic factors that shape investor confidence.

Economic philosophy

Perhaps the greatest concern today is not any individual policy but the absence of a clearly articulated economic philosophy. Every adverse development is attributed to geopolitics, oil prices or global uncertainty, while every favorable indicator is presented as evidence that the existing model requires no fundamental reassessment. Such narratives may reassure markets temporarily, but they risk postponing deeper conversations about the institutional foundations of prosperity.

John Maynard Keynes reminded us that sustained growth ultimately depends on aggregate demand. Douglas North showed that institutions reduce uncertainty. Kaushik Basu emphasized that markets require legitimacy to function effectively. Dani Rodrik argued that governments must build productive capabilities across society rather than simply identify champions. Hirschman taught us that exit is often the silent verdict on institutional performance.

Taken together, these insights point towards a simple but powerful proposition. India’s long-term success will depend not merely on maintaining respectable growth rates or accumulating foreign exchange reserves, but on building institutions that inspire confidence, generate productive employment, broaden entrepreneurial opportunity and strengthen the purchasing power of ordinary households.

India possesses extraordinary strengths: a young population, entrepreneurial energy, technological capability and one of the world’s largest domestic markets. These advantages provide an enviable foundation for sustained prosperity. But they cannot be realised through optimism alone. They require a government willing to combine macroeconomic stability with institutional credibility, social trust and policy consistency.

The debate India needs is therefore larger than whether oil prices remain benign or whether the rupee is temporarily undervalued. It is whether the country is creating the institutional conditions necessary for a genuinely demand-driven economy.

Resilience enables nations to survive shocks. Institutional legitimacy enables them to prosper. India does not suffer from a shortage of optimism. It suffers from a shortage of institutional imagination, and that is a conversation that deserves far greater attention than the reassuring language of macroeconomic resilience.

Freddy Thomas teaches law and economics at Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru.

A guest teacher at a government school in Haryana’s Rohtak was suspended two days after she participated in the June 6 protest organised by the Cockroach Janta Party at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, The Hindu reported on Thursday.

Sulekha Dalal, a teacher at the Government Middle School in Rainkpura, was “placed under suspension with effect from June 8” by the district elementary education officer in a June 10 order.

The document mentioned no reason for the action. However, the District Elementary Education Officer Bijender Hooda told The Hindu that Dalal had “violated the conduct rules for government employees by leaving her station and taking part in the protest without prior approval”.

The protests by the CJP had come in the wake of the cancellation of the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical college admissions following allegations of a paper leak.

Students and job seekers have also alleged irregularities in the Class 12 exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Staff Selection Commission test for government posts.

The action against Dala came after a video was widely shared online showing her addressing protesters.

In the clip, she could be heard describing the protest as a “do or die” fight and said she was participating as a mother supporting children, The Indian Express reported.

“Now the mother of the cockroach has stepped into the field,” she reportedly said. “We are with our children. One mother is the mother of the entire nation.”

Dalal later said her family had “no political background for generations”, The Hindu reported.

According to the order by the district elementary education officer, she will receive a subsistence allowance during the suspension period, The Tribune reported. Her headquarters during this time will be the office of the block education officer in Rohtak.

Dalal told The Hindu that her 21-year-old son did not make it to the final list for the Delhi Head Constable recruitment despite working hard, and she alleged that the examination paper had been leaked.

She said that while the undergraduate medical entrance examination received media attention, there had been little discussion about the Head Constable exam.

The Cockroach Janta Party describes itself as a “political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth”.

It was launched on May 16 in response to reports of remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant on the previous day comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”. Since then, the campaign has garnered more than 22 million followers on Instagram.

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

Edited by Sneha.

Also read:

• ‘They have sold themselves’: At ‘cockroach’ gathering in Delhi, protestors rage against the system

• Does Abhijeet Dipke’s popularity signal a new age of Dalit leaders

United States President Donald Trump said that American forces will strike Tehran “very hard tonight”. He also threatened that his country’s military would seize key Iranian oil export terminal of Kharg Island as well as Tehran’s oil and gas infrastructure and markets.

The island is an eight-km stretch of land off the Iranian coast that handles about 90% of the country’s crude exports. Trump’s statements escalates tensions in West Asia and threaten a fragile ceasefire that took effect on April 8.

Trump claimed on social media the action would be “​much like we ​have ⁠with Venezuela”. However, shortly after his post, he said that he was not certain that “America has the stomach” for a larger conflict despite it being his “preference”. Read on.

New Delhi has registered a “strong protest” to the United States’ chargé d’affaires after three Indian seafarers were killed when the US military struck a commercial tanker off the coast of Oman. Randhir Jaiswal, the external affairs ministry spokesperson, added that the American diplomat was also informed of “our deepest concerns on the ongoing incidents of attacks” amid the war in West Asia.

The Indians who were killed on the Palau-flagged M/T Settebello were identified as chief engineer Patnala Suresh, deck cadet Aditya Sharma and engine fitter Shivanand Chaurasiya. “These attacks came from the US Navy stationed there,” Jaiswal said. Read on.

Twenty Indian seafarers were on board another ship involved in a “maritime security incident” off the coast of Oman, said the Union government. The crew members are safe and were being evacuated.

Videos posted on social media showed smoke billowing from the Guinea-Bissau-flagged bitumen tanker MT Jalveer. It was unclear what had caused the fire on the ship off the port of Shinas in northern Oman.

The Indian diplomatic mission said that it was monitoring the situation and coordinating with the local authorities. Read on.

The Calcutta High Court granted interim protection from arrest for three weeks to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee. However, he was directed to appear before the Crime Investigation Department by 6 pm in the case, which pertains to allegedly forged signatures in a letter submitted to support the appointment of Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly.

Abhishek Banerjee had earlier skipped summons issued by the department. Subsequently, the CID searched the Kolkata home of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday. Abhishek Banerjee is Mamata Banerjee’s nephew. Read on.

Meanwhile, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee said that he will not appear as a lawyer for party leader Abhishek Banerjee in cases before the court because of his “arrogant attitude”. He told reporters that party chief Mamata Banerjee should choose between him and Abhishek Banerjee.

Kalyan Banerjee claimed that he was not consulted before a separate writ petition was filed in a case relating to searches conducted at Mamata Banerjee’s home.

He further said that he was senior to Abhishek Banerjee in politics and that he cannot be disrespected or humiliated. “[Abhishek Banerjee] also needs to understand that the party is facing this crisis because of him,” said Kalyan Banerjee. Read on.

Why the Trinamool Congress is collapsing like a house of cards, explains Anant Gupta

Two members of the Kuki community were killed and several homes were burned down when the Kultuh Kuki village in Manipur’s Kamjong district was attacked by militants. The attack came hours after arson was reported in Senapati district and other places.

In the Liangmai Taphou village of Senapati district, the state headquarters of the Naga People’s Front was vandalised. Earlier in the day, unidentified miscreants ransacked the premises. The NPF is the ruling party in neighbouring Nagaland. Read on.

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When the Supreme Court in March reiterated that the exclusion of Dalit converts from Scheduled Caste status is “absolute and admits no exception”, it does more than settle a doctrinal question.

It revives a foundational constitutional dilemma: can the law deny protection against caste-based discrimination simply because an individual has changed religion? More critically, does caste itself disappear upon conversion, or does the law merely choose not to see it? This tension between constitutional text and social reality lies at the heart of the debate on SC status for converts to Islam and Christianity.

The legal position rests on Clause 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950. Originally limited to Hindus, and later extended to Sikhs and Buddhists, the Order continues to exclude Muslims and Christians. The Supreme Court has consistently read this provision strictly: SC status is a matter of legal recognition, not lived identity.

A Dalit who converts to Christianity or Islam immediately loses access to reservations, scholarships, and protections under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The Court has clarified that this bar is categorical – possessing an SC certificate is irrelevant if the individual no longer professes a qualifying religion.

This formal clarity sits uneasily with empirical reality. NCRB data shows that tens of thousands of atrocities against Scheduled Castes are registered each year, with pendency rates exceeding 85 percent. Caste-based violence remains a structural feature of Indian society.

Sociological studies further demonstrate that caste does not vanish upon conversion. Millions of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims continue to face social segregation, occupational immobility, and endogamy mirroring caste hierarchies within Hindu society. Yet they remain largely invisible in state policy. The result is a paradox: the law recognises caste within certain religions but denies its existence when it crosses religious boundaries.

Persistent discrimination

The constitutional validity of Clause 3 has been pending before the Supreme Court since 2004. Meanwhile, multiple institutional exercises have pointed toward the need for reconsideration. The Ranganath Mishra Commission recommended making SC status religion-neutral, finding no empirical basis for exclusion. The Sachar Committee and subsequent studies reinforced this conclusion, documenting persistent discrimination among converts.

In 2022, the Union government constituted a Commission of Inquiry under former Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan to examine whether SC status should be extended to Dalit converts. However, the Commission has not submitted its report. Its deadline has been extended to April 2026, prolonging uncertainty for millions.

What is striking is not just policy delay but judicial silence. The Supreme Court’s reaffirmation of the “absolute bar” does not engage with the pending constitutional challenge, the Balakrishnan Commission, or the Mishra Commission’s findings. Nor does it revisit Soosai vs Union of India (1985), where the Court acknowledged that resolving this issue requires contemporary socio-economic evidence.

Instead, in C Selvarani (2024), the Court characterised claims to SC status after conversion as a “fraud on the Constitution.” Together, these developments suggest not just doctrinal continuity but a narrowing of legal space at a time when evidence points toward reconsideration.

The constitutional difficulty is clear. Articles 14, 15, and 16 permit affirmative action to remedy historical disadvantage. But if caste-based disadvantage persists irrespective of religion, excluding Dalit converts risks making the classification under-inclusive.

The question is not whether affirmative action can differentiate, but whether it can do so while ignoring social reality. A religion-based exclusion begins to resemble constitutional evasion rather than reasonable classification.

There is also a quieter constitutional cost. Article 25 guarantees the freedom to profess, practise, and propagate religion. Yet when conversion leads to the loss of legal protections and socio-economic safeguards, that freedom becomes conditional.

Law penalises conversion

The law does not prohibit conversion, but it penalises it. The price of changing religion is the forfeiture of constitutional benefits, even if the underlying disadvantage remains unchanged.

The Supreme Court’s position has been consistent, if cautious. In Soosai vs Union of India (1985), it upheld the exclusion of Christian converts due to insufficient evidence of continued backwardness. In S Anbalagan vs B Devarajan (1984), it acknowledged that caste may persist after conversion but stopped short of extending benefits. In CM Arumugam vs S Rajgopal (1976), it recognised that caste identity can revive upon reconversion, implicitly admitting that caste is not erased by religious change.

In State of Kerala vs Chandramohanan (2004), it reaffirmed that SC status is governed strictly by the Presidential Order under Article 341. Even in KP Manu vs Chairman, Scrutiny Committee (2015), while allowing restoration of caste status after reconversion, the Court maintained the rigid framework linking SC recognition to specified religions.

These decisions reveal a consistent judicial pattern: acknowledgment that caste may endure beyond religion, combined with reluctance to extend constitutional protection accordingly. The recent reaffirmation of the “absolute bar” reflects fidelity to statutory text but also institutional hesitation to engage with evolving social evidence.

The consequences are tangible. Dalit converts are excluded from protections under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. In EV Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh (2005), the Court emphasised the rigidity of SC classification under Article 341.

In Chandramohanan (2004), it reiterated that statutory protections cannot extend beyond those recognised under the 1950 Order. This creates a legal paradox: caste-based violence may persist, but victims are denied protection because the law no longer recognises their caste identity.

International human rights law offers a different approach. Instruments such as the ICCPR and CERD emphasise equality and prohibit discrimination based on descent, interpreted to include caste. These frameworks prioritise lived disadvantage rather than formal religious identity.

In the United States, affirmative action is anchored in race and historical disadvantage, not religion. South Africa’s jurisprudence similarly prioritises substantive equality. India’s religion-linked approach to caste recognition thus stands out as an exception.

The persistence of caste across religions presents a challenge that the current legal framework struggles to address. Delinking SC status from religion, as recommended by the Mishra Commission, would be one path forward. Alternatively, a parallel framework for Dalit converts could be devised. What is clear is that the status quo is increasingly difficult to justify – constitutionally, empirically, and morally.

The Supreme Court may be correct in its interpretation of the law as it stands. But the law itself appears increasingly misaligned with the realities it governs. An “absolute bar” offers doctrinal clarity, but at the cost of substantive justice.

If caste does not disappear upon conversion, the Constitution cannot afford to pretend that it does. The real question, then, is not whether the Court has interpreted the law correctly, but whether the law, in its present form, remains defensible.

Shashank Shekhar is Assistant Professor of Law at Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Divya Sridhar is Assistant Professor at Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.

The Supreme Court on Thursday quantified the value of domestic labour by homemakers at Rs 30,000 per month while hearing a man’s appeal demanding additional compensation for the death of his wife in a 2001 motor accident in Haryana, Live Law reported.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had awarded a compensation of Rs 8 lakh to the family in 2024, Bar and Bench reported.

On Thursday, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Sanjoy Karol and NK Singh said it had arrived at the value of Rs 30,000 by quantifying the minimum “loss of domestic care” in the absence of a homemaker.

“This determination shall be revised by 10%, cumulatively, every three years,” the court added.

The bench noted that caregiving work, mostly by women in the country, is estimated to contribute to about 15% to 17% of the gross domestic product.

“We are also of the view that the housewife contributes to the growth of the human being and the nation,” the court said. “The homemaker builds the nation.”

The court expressed hope that the word “homemaker” would “acquire the acronym of nation builder”, Live Law quoted Karol as saying.

“It is ironic to describe a homemaker as dependent on earning members, when, in reality, the household’s functioning depends substantially on the homemaker,” the bench said.

The bench further clarified that the amount is to be taken into account in cases “where the homemaker does not have an input into the house, in strictly conventional, monetary terms”.

However, it said that in cases where the homemaker is part of the workforce, “the component of loss of domestic care shall be in addition to the monthly income as may be proved before the tribunal/courts”.

Karol added that the “loss of domestic care” in the present case would be in addition to damages recognised by the Supreme Court in a 2017 judgement about compensation in motor accident claims.

In the Pranay Sethi judgement, a Constitution bench of the court had issued guidelines for calculating future income of those killed in motor accidents based on the age and occupation of the deceased.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Three Indian seafarers were killed after the United States forces struck a commercial tanker off the coast of Oman, amid the war in West Asia, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Thursday.

This came a day after New Delhi summoned a senior American diplomat to register its protest against the strike in the Gulf of Oman, ANI reported.

The Forward Seamen’s Union of India General Secretary Manoj Yadav identified the three dead as chief engineer Patnala Suresh, deck cadet Aditya Sharma and engine fitter Shivanand Chaurasiya, The Hindu reported.

The three are from Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Yadav told ANI.

Two casualties including cadet, fitter and ch engineer are reported missing...@FSUIINDIA @IMOHQ @ITFglobalunion pic.twitter.com/z8qZPYRWx1

— FSUI (@FSUIINDIA) June 10, 2026

On Wednesday, the Ministry of External Affairs said that three Indian crew members were missing and 21 others had been rescued from the Palau-flagged tanker Settebello.

The ministry summoned Jason Meeks, the US Chargé d’Affaires in New Delhi, over the attack.

On Thursday, Randhir Jaiswal, the external affairs ministry spokesperson, said that New Delhi had informed the US diplomat of “our deepest concerns on the ongoing incidents of attacks” and had “registered a strong protest” in the matter.

“These attacks came from the US Navy stationed there,” Jaiswal said.

New Delhi said that three ships that had been involved in the incidents between Monday and Thursday are foreign-flagged. Two of the ships are sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control and one is “also in the category of non-compliant ships”, Jaiswal added.

On Tuesday, the US Central Command said that it had struck Settebello, claiming that it had violated the American blockade restricting maritime traffic linked to Iran. The ship was allegedly attempting to transport oil from Iran.

“A US aircraft fired precision munitions into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces,” the military agency said.

The strike came after another tanker, Marivex, carrying 24 Indian seafarers, was also targeted by the US forces on Monday for allegedly violating the blockade. All crew members on board the Marivex were rescued.

On Wednesday, the external affairs ministry condemned the attack on Settebello and reiterated its call for “immediate de-escalation of tensions and the conclusion of ongoing negotiations for a diplomatic solution so that peace and stability can return to the region”.

It added: “The targeting of commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the region must end, and free and unimpeded navigation and commerce through the international waterways in the region in keeping with international law must be restored at the earliest.”

India raises attacks on commercial ships at UNSC

India on Wednesday told the United Nations Security Council as well that several of its nationals had been killed or are missing in attacks linked to the West Asia conflict, The Hindu reported.

Speaking at a UNSC meeting, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Harish Parvathaneni, said that New Delhi is firmly opposed to attacks on merchant shipping.

“Our trade and energy supply chains are dependent on stability in the region and any major disruption has serious consequences for the Indian economy,” The Hindu quoted him as saying.

“The mounting destruction and deaths and cessation of normal life and economic activities have deeply impacted India, a proximate neighbour with critical stakes in the security and stability of the region,” he said.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest for three weeks to Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee in a case pertaining to allegedly forged signatures in a letter submitted to support the appointment of Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Live Law reported.

However, Justice Kausik Chanda asked Abhishek Banerjee, who is the TMC’s national general secretary, to appear before the Crime Investigation Department by 6 pm, PTI reported.

This came after his lawyer informed the court that the MP was in Delhi and would return to Kolkata only by 4 pm.

He had earlier skipped summons issued by the department in the case. Subsequently, the CID searched the Kolkata home of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday, while she was in Delhi. Abhishek Banerjee is Mamata Banerjee’s nephew.

On Thursday, the court said that a person accused in a crime cannot be forced to produce documents that may potentially incriminate them, as it would go against protections guaranteed by Article 20 of the Constitution, Live Law reported.

Article 20 provides fundamental safeguards to individuals accused of crimes, including barring them from being a witness against themselves.

The matter was listed for further hearing after two weeks, Bar and Bench reported.

The case

Rebel TMC MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, who have been expelled from the party, have alleged that 14 of the signatures were forged in documents submitted to Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose in support of Chattopadhyay’s appointment.

On June 3, Ritabrata Banerjee claimed that Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose had accepted the claim of 58 of the party’s 80 MLAs to be the main Opposition in the state.

Earlier that day, the 58 MLAs submitted to the speaker, without the party’s letterhead, a list mentioning Mamata Banerjee as the party’s leader, Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the Opposition, and Sheuli Saha, Javed Khan, Sandipan Saha and Sabina Yasmin as the deputy leaders in the House.

Ritabrata Banerjee, who led the group, claimed that the speaker has accepted these demands.

The stand taken by the 58 MLAs is being viewed as a challenge to party chief Mamata Banerjee, who is supporting Chattopadhyay as the Opposition leader in the House.

On June 2, Abhishek Banerjee sent a fresh letter to Bose, reiterating the party’s decision to appoint Chattopadhyay as leader of the Opposition.

Edited by Sneha.

Also read: Why the Trinamool Congress is collapsing like a house of cards

Two members of the Kuki community were killed and several homes were burned down on Thursday when the Kultuh Kuki village in Manipur’s Kamjong district was attacked by militants, a senior police officer told Scroll.

The Eastern Kuki Chiefs’ Association identified the two persons as Letminlun Haokip, the head deacon of the Kultuh Church, and Lunminthang Haokip, the youth chairman of the church.

The attack came hours after arson was reported in Senapati district and other places.

The fresh violence came after the bodies of six men from the Naga community, who had been abducted by a Kuki armed group on May 13, were recovered on Wednesday. The police said that an investigation into the deaths was underway.

In the Liangmai Taphou village of Senapati district, the state headquarters of the Naga People’s Front was vandalised on Thursday, India Today NE reported. This came hours after unidentified miscreants ransacked the premises. The NPF is the ruling party in neighbouring Nagaland.

Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh on Thursday expressed his condolences for the death of the six Naga men.

The government “strongly condemns this heinous act” and is committed to ensuring that the perpetrators are brought to justice, he said, adding that the matter was being looked into by the National Investigation Agency.

Singh said that he also condemns the killing of a farmer from Lansan Kuki village in Tamenglong district on Tuesday. “Violence has no place in our society,” he said on social media.

The Eastern Kuki Chiefs’ Association called on the authorities and security agencies to “immediately investigate the incident, bring the perpetrators to justice, and take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of vulnerable villages in the region”.

On Wednesday, the United Naga Council announced a 24-hour shutdown in Naga areas of Manipur on Thursday and Friday, the Ukhrul Times reported. The protest was to demand justice for the six men, said the civil society organisation that represents the Naga community.

At least 25 persons from the two communities have been killed since tensions erupted between them in February.

On May 13, at least 48 civilians from the Kuki and Naga communities were taken hostage by armed groups in the state’s Kangpokpi and Senapati districts.

The abductions had taken place after three church leaders were killed and five others injured when the vehicles they were travelling in were ambushed while they were returning from a meeting in Churachandpur to Kangpokpi. Another civilian was also killed and his wife wounded in Noney district.

On May 15, the police said that 28 of the persons who had been abducted were released.

On Tuesday, the United Naga Council said that 14 Kuki hostages had been released on “humanitarian grounds”.

On Wednesday, the bodies of the six Naga men were found near the Kharam Vaiphei village in Kangpokpi district, Ukhrul Times reported.

After the attack on May 13, Kuki Inpi Manipur, the apex body of the Kuki tribes, had alleged that the armed Naga group Zeliangrong United Front-Kamson faction was behind the action. However, the authorities said that the involvement of militant outfits was being investigated.

The developments came amid tensions between Kukis and Nagas in Ukhrul that had erupted on February 7 after an alleged assault involving members of the Tangkhul Naga and the Kuki-Zo communities escalated into clashes.

The fresh violence came against the backdrop of the ethnic clashes that broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in the state in May 2023, leaving at least 263 persons dead and more than 59,000 persons displaced. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.

Inputs from Rokibuz Zaman. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday moved a special court seeking that bail be cancelled for activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves in the Bhima Koregaon case, the Hindustan Times reported.

The agency alleged that the activists violated the conditions of their release by attending a gathering at the Mumbai Press Club earlier this year.

Gonsalves and Ferreira were arrested in August 2018 and spent almost five years in custody before the Supreme Court granted them regular bail in July 2023, with certain conditions.

On May 15, the NIA, in the same case, had sought that the bail granted to activists Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj be cancelled, citing the same Mumbai Press Club event. The agency had submitted then that the bail conditions for Rao and Bharadwaj barred them from contacting or communicating with other accused persons.

On Wednesday, Special Judge Chakor S Baviskar directed Ferreira and Gonsalves to file their replies to the NIA’s application. The matter will be heard on June 19.

In the application seeking the cancellation of bail of the activists, the NIA claimed that the gathering at the Mumbai Press Club was convened with the intention of propagating the ideology of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and decide on the future of the “Urban Naxal movement”, the Hindustan Times reported.

In April, the Mumbai Press Club suspended three members for having “facilitated” the gathering on January 19. The NIA had, on May 1, sought documents from the press club related to the gathering.

A Mumbai City Civil Court on May 7 stayed the expulsion of one of the Mumbai Press Club members, Gurbir Singh.

It held that on a preliminary reading, action had been taken against him “only with an intent to prevent him from contesting the elections of the club”.

Also read:

• Bhima Koregaon case: How lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj got bail after three years in jail

• Anand Patwardhan: The taming of the Mumbai Press Club

The case

The Bhima Koregaon case pertains to the violence that broke out near Pune on January 1, 2018, a day after a conclave called the Elgar Parishad was organised to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon. One person was killed in the violence and several others were injured.

The NIA has alleged that the Elgar Parishad was part of a larger Maoist conspiracy to stoke caste violence, destabilise the Union government and assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sixteen people were arrested in the case.

But when the Supreme Court in 2023 granted bail to two persons accused in the case, it noted that the primary evidence cited by the NIA – a batch of letters – was of “weak probative value or quality”. In addition, a digital forensics firm, Arsenal Consulting, concluded that false evidence had been planted on the laptops and devices of the accused persons.

Of the 16 accused persons, 14 have been released on bail. Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, who was also accused in the case, died in prison in 2021.

Another accused man, Surendra Gadling, got bail from the Bombay High Court on May 4. However, he remains in jail as his bail application in a 2016 arson case is pending before the Supreme Court.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Union government on Wednesday extended its central excise duty exemption to petrol that is blended with 22% to 30% ethanol.

The Bureau of Indian Standards had in May notified fuel norms for higher ethanol-blended petrol containing 22%, 25%, 27% and 30% ethyl alcohol by volume. The variants are not yet available commercially.

The government’s Ethanol Blending Programme currently mandates the sale of petrol blended with 20% ethanol, or E20 fuel.

India hit its target of reaching a 20% ethanol mix in petrol in July 2025, five years ahead of schedule.

This was 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.

Consumers have complained that the new fuel mix damages engines and reduces their mileage.

A report in October, which analysed government and industry data, said that only about 20% of new petrol vehicles sold in India in the last 15 years were compliant with the E20 fuel blend.

On December 11, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari told Parliament that the government had tested older vehicles running fuel blended with 20% ethanol and found no case of engine failure.

The vehicles covered almost 1 lakh km in the tests conducted by the government-run Automotive Research Association of India, the road transport minister said.

Gadkari added that the research association had observed “no impact” of E20 fuel on the vehicles’ performance, start ability, drive ability and metal capability.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Also read:

• Drivers fear engine damage, mileage drop as India increases ethanol in petrol to 20%
• Race to rollout E20 fuel leaves behind most vehicles on Indian roads

A group of retired civil servants on Wednesday demanded that Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan should resign from his post on account of allegations of widespread mismanagement in the conduct of centralised competitive exams.

The demand came against the backdrop of controversies surrounding the cancellation of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for medical admissions following allegations of a paper leak, and complaints about the Central Board of Secondary Education’s digital evaluation process for the Class 12 examination. The developments have sparked protests and calls from Opposition parties for Pradhan’s resignation.

The Constitutional Conduct Group on Wednesday expressed outrage over the “repeated, monumental failures in the conduct of national level examinations under the watch of the Union Ministry of Education”.

The group said that the “systemic collapses” had shattered the dreams and futures of millions of students and “severely eroded public trust in one of the most critical components of…democracy – the public education and merit system”.

Referring to the NEET-UG controversy, the group questioned why the National Testing Agency had been unable to rectify the recurring flaws in the examination process.

It added that “in its obsession with centralised testing and selection systems, the Union government has paid scant regard to the dictum that decentralised functioning distributes risks and eliminates the chances of catastrophic, universal failures”.

The retired civil servants also said that repeated requests from the governments of Tamil Nadu and other states that they be allowed to conduct their own undergraduate admissions processes had been ignored.

CCG Open Letter on Accountability of Union Education Minister . pic.twitter.com/YOAeL03qfE

— constitutionalconduct (@consticonduct) June 10, 2026

The group also flagged the “chaotic implementation” of the On-Screen Marking system for the CBSE Class 12 examination. It said that the move to transfer the education board’s chairperson and secretary was “too little, too late”.

It added: “This hid the deeper policy blind spots, lack of rigorous beta testing and oversight failures.”

“We do not believe that the CBSE chairman and secretary alone could have been solely responsible,” the group said. “There must have been some interest expressed from higher up.”

It also said that in a democracy, elected representatives are “ultimately accountable to the citizens of India”.

“When lakhs of students and their families suffer immense mental agony and financial strain due to preventable lapses in high-stakes examinations…those at the helm cannot abdicate their constitutional duties and evade responsibility for avoidable lapses,” the group said. “They cannot hold only officials responsible.”

In addition to seeking Pradhan’s resignation, the group also demanded a “time-bound and independent judicial or expert review” of the National Testing Agency and the CBSE evaluation system. It also sought the implementation of “strict, state-of-the-art security and cryptographic protocols against question paper leaks and rigorous third-party audits of all digital evaluation system” before national rollouts.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Congress on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court against the rejection of the nomination of party leader Meenakshi Natarajan for the Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh on the basis of objections raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party, The Indian Express reported.

Natarajan was the Congress’ sole candidate for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. Her nomination was rejected on Tuesday after the BJP claimed that she had withheld information in her affidavit about a criminal case against her in Telangana.

Natarajan alleged that the Congress’ advocates “were not heard” by the returning officer who rejected the nomination.

On Wednesday, a delegation of Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala told reporters that they had made a detailed representation to the poll panel.

Singhvi said that Section 33A of the 1951 Representation of the People Act requires candidates to disclose cases filed against them that have a punishment of two years or more, and matters in which charges have been framed.

Natarajan had received a notice to appear before the court and explain “why cognisance should not be taken”, Singhvi said.

“So, the notice she received was before any cognisance was taken,” he added. “Without cognisance, no criminal case exists in the eyes of the law.” Singhvi maintained that there was no criminal case that Natarajan could have disclosed.

“We hope the EC realises that this will create a very bad, distorted, non-level playing field that strikes at the heart of democracy,” he added.

Rajya Sabha polls

The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly is slated to elect three members to the Rajya Sabha on June 18. With the Assembly’s effective strength at 229, a candidate requires 58 first-preference votes to win.

Of these seats, the BJP has 164 MLAs excluding the speaker. While the Congress has 63 MLAs, its ally Bharat Adivasi Party has one.

The BJP has the numbers to win two of the three seats as it needs 116 votes to do so. However, it will be left with 48 votes that are not sufficient to clinch the third seat.

Despite this, the BJP fielded three candidates, raising concerns in the Congress about cross-voting and defections.

On Tuesday, the Congress flew most of its MLAs from Bhopal to Bengaluru, where the party is in power, while keeping a few senior legislators back in Madhya Pradesh, where it is in the Opposition.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

On May 24, Nitesh Thakur left Shimla in his car around noon, hoping to reach his village 200 km away in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh by evening. But he soon found himself caught in a heavy stream of tourist vehicles on their way to Manali. “The vehicles were overtaking each other on the narrow single road, leading to the traffic jam,” he said.

Instead of the usual four hours, it took Thakur six hours to reach home. For those travelling on the Shimla-Manali highway, this summer has brought many such punishing experiences.

Throughout May, nearly 8 lakh tourist vehicles entered Shimla from different points. Of these vehicles, 70,000 arrived in Shimla over just three days, the weekend of May 22-24.

Routes to many famous tourist spots across Himachal Pradesh branch out from Shimla. The result was long, serpentine queues of cars on the highway, parking lots spilling over and Shimla’s narrow roads choked with vehicles.

Much of the tourist flow to the hill state had to do with the heat waves that swept north India as early as mid-April. The surge of visitors is good news for the state’s tourism industry, but the pressure of cars and tourists is straining the resources of Himachal Pradesh’s hill stations.

Thakur told Scroll that losing hours in traffic jams during the tourist season has become a common experience for residents across the state. “Many of the private tourist vehicles never follow lane discipline and stop randomly on the road to click pictures,” said Thakur. “At times, these tourists are intoxicated and aggressive when confronted.”

From unruly behaviour of tourists on the roads to littering and solid waste, Himachal Pradesh is struggling to balance the economic gains of tourism with sensitivity for the local ecology and culture. This comes at a time when climate change has already started battering the Himalayan region.

“By paying an entry tax, a tourist thinks he has purchased Himachal and can do anything he wants to,” said Thakur.

#WATCH | Manali, Himachal Pradesh: Traffic congestion and slow vehicular movement witnessed in Manali as people thronged to hilly areas to get respite from the scorching heat pic.twitter.com/U0E9K1lFHm

— ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2026

Heavy tourist inflow

The state’s annual tourist footfall has averaged around 1.63 crore visitors per year between 2014 and 2024, according to the Himachal Pradesh tourism department. This includes the slump in 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2025, for the first time, Himachal Pradesh recorded an inflow of more than three crore tourists. It was a nearly 72% increase from 2024, when 1.81 crore tourists had visited the state, according to the tourism department.

Kullu district, where the popular destination Manali is located, hosted the maximum number of tourists last year – 27 lakh – followed by Shimla, with 26.7 lakh tourists. Solan district also recorded a footfall of 24 lakh visitors.

Nowhere is the pressure of tourist footfall more evident than the 9 km-long Atal Tunnel, which connects Manali with the remote town of Keylong, bypassing the snowbound Rohtang Pass.

The tunnel significantly reduces the travel time between Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti districts of the state. It can handle 4,500 vehicles daily, but the number of vehicles entering the tunnel in the ongoing season has touched nearly 11,000 a day, shows traffic data.

The sharp rise in tourist traffic through the tunnel in May prompted the Border Roads Organisation to conduct a safety audit of the tunnel, its first-ever, on June 2.

Himachal Pradesh Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi expressed concern about the heavy vehicular traffic on the Atal Tunnel corridor. “There is a need to rethink our carrying capacity,” Negi told ANI on June 4.

For the officials manning Himachal Pradesh’s roads, the large numbers pose a challenge.

After 85,000 vehicles streamed into Shimla in the last weekend of May, the police have advised tourists to not enter the city if they are not planning to stay there.

Abhishek, Shimla’s additional superintendent of police, said tourists headed for high-altitude destinations beyond Shimla are being told to take a diversion via a bypass so that their vehicles don’t enter the city.

The police expect just as many vehicles over the next few weekends, Abhishek told Scroll. “That’s why we have adopted multiple strategies.” The police have also deployed 32 police bike riders to respond to traffic congestion promptly.

For residents of the state, the tourist influx brings many disruptions. Hem Raj, a government employee from Kullu district, said local residents have begun to shape their lives around traffic.

“To avoid getting caught in traffic, people leave home much earlier in the day,” Raj said. “While they are able to avoid traffic jams in the morning, they usually get struck on their way back in the evening. Among those most affected are school children who get stuck on their way home.”

Viral videos of road rage incidents and clashes between local residents and tourists have become common.

On June 1, a 60-year-old man was killed after a private tourist vehicle from Delhi knocked him down, dragged him along the road, and ran over him twice in Manali’s Naggar road area. Witnesses alleged that the car was on the wrong side of the road and its three occupants were driving under the influence of alcohol.

Two days earlier, on May 30, a parking dispute in Kullu’s Kasol escalated after a tourist from Punjab allegedly shot at a local resident.

Thakur said tourists need to respect local cultural sensitivities and the environment. “Pahari people are very simple and soft,” he said. “We are not used to aggressive and unruly behaviour in public.”

Environmental cost

The tourism sector in Himachal Pradesh contributes around 7% to the state’s gross domestic product. A research paper published in the International Journal of Current Science in 2023 notes that tourism has undeniable economic benefits for the state. “But this growth has come at an exorbitant cost to the environment,” say the researchers, pointing to increased waste generation, vehicle emissions, pollution, deforestation, endangerment and depletion of precious natural resources.

For instance, Manali sees about 30 lakh visitors annually. In 2021, Himachal Pradesh University’s School of Environmental Sciences conducted a study of the environmental impact of tourism on Manali and found that the tourist season produces more solid waste and sewage than the town can handle.

“About 35 MT (metric tonne) solid waste is produced during the peak season which is sent to landfill. Sewage production rises to 15-16 million litres per day, while Manali can treat only about 182 million litres,” it noted.

Residents like Thakur said tourists are also inconsiderate of the environment. “When someone is intoxicated, they hardly care about waste,” he said. “They litter everywhere on roads, mountains and all the fragile places.” Such waste often finds its way into pristine water bodies after rainfall in upper reaches of the area, blocking drains in the plains, he said.

Threat to glaciers

Along with climate change, the heavy tourist influx might be affecting the glaciers in the sensitive Himalayan region. According to Anil Kulkarni, one of India’s renowned glaciologists, dust kicked up by vehicles and black carbon emissions due to heavy traffic can aggravate the melting of glaciers.

“At many places, the road conditions are bad. When vehicles ply on this unpaved road, a huge amount of dust is generated,” said Kulkarni. Wind transports the dust onto the snow and glaciers, contributing to melting, he said.

Similarly, black carbon in the air during the snowfall season does not allow the fresh snow cover to last for a long time. “If you have a lot of traffic in winter, all the black carbon gets deposited on the seasonal snow which will increase its melting,” said Kulkarni.

Reduced snow cover can create conditions for forest fires. “With seasonal snowfall melting soon, the moisture content in soil is reduced during the early part of summer which can lead to forest fires,” said Kulkarni.

A landmark 2017 study of the Chandra basin glacial valley located in the Lahaul-Spiti district that Kulkarni was part of found that small and low-altitude glaciers in the region had recorded a water loss of 67% between 1984 and 2012.

Kulkarni’s anecdotal experiences of researching the Himalayas also tell a vivid story. “In 1988, I visited Lahaul and Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh for the first time. During our studies, we would hardly see any humans for weeks in those glacial valleys,” he said. “Finding a human in those areas would be a pleasant surprise and we would often share food and other items with them.”

Nowadays, Kulkarni said, those same places have become camping sites for tourists. “It’s full of people.”

The Delhi High Court has quashed a first information report filed by the Economic Offences Wing as well as a case filed by the Enforcement Directorate against news website NewsClick and its editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha in connection with allegations of foreign funding.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, in a judgement on May 29, held that “not only are the present proceedings only mala fide, but also an arbitrary attack and abuse of powers on the free and impartial journalism of the petitioners.”

The judge said that allowing the case to continue would be “nothing but a gross abuse of the process of the law”.

The first information report filed in August 2020 had accused NewsClick of having received Rs 9.5 crore in foreign direct investment from a United States-based firm named Worldwide Media Holdings LLC by means of an allegedly overvalued share transaction meant to circumvent foreign direct investment regulations, Live Law reported.

The Economic Offences Wing had alleged that a significant part of the funds was siphoned off through salaries, consultancy fees and other expenses, the legal news outlet reported.

However, Krishna noted in her judgement that NewsClick had explained that no regulatory permission was needed at the time for foreign direct investment in digital news.

“In fact, the petitioner had written a letter dated 20.12.2017 to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting requesting a clarification to the policy in respect of print media and also in respect of FDI in a company engaged in the business of online publication of news,” the judge noted.

The High Court said that the ministry had said in a letter on January 5, 2018, that online publication on a web portal did not fall under the ambit of print media.

“From the response received from the ministry in respect of FDI policy, it was clearly evident that there was no cap on the online publication of news and thus, the agreement between the petitioner and M/s Worldwide Media Holdings LLC and, therefore, the investment agreement dated 20.03.2018 cannot be said to be in violation of any law or disclosing any criminal offence,” the High Court said.

The court further said that the valuation of shares was carried out in line with the regulations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. It noted that the price was mutually agreed to by Worldwide Media Holdings LLC and NewsClick.

“It is an economic decision, which does not spell out any criminal offence,” Krishna said.

The court said that the offence of criminal breach of trust was also not made out, as there was no entrustment of property, and no allegation of misappropriation.

Purkayastha had been granted interim protection from arrest in the matter in June 2021, and the order was extended from time to time.

The Enforcement Directorate had raided the premises of NewsClick and the homes of its editors in February 2021 in connection with the case.

In October 2023, the Delhi Police raided the NewsClick office, along with the residences of nearly 80 journalists and other persons associated with the portal. Purkayastha was arrested on the same day as the raids.

The searches were linked to another case filed against the news outlet under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act by the Delhi Police in March 2024, which alleged that it had received funds through Chinese entities “with the intention of undermining India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

In May 2024, the Supreme Court declared Purkayastha’s arrest in the case invalid and ordered his release.

Written by Neerad Pandharipande. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

“Digital authoritarianism” refers to governments using technology for surveillance and censorship to repress dissent.

China remains the master practitioner. There, sweeping surveillance and censorship at home is combined with cyber-espionage and disinformation, censorship and influence campaigns abroad.

But this problem is no longer confined to Moscow or Beijing. Democracies, too, are beginning to repress their citizens with the same tools, and export them abroad.

Two countries in particular – India and Israel – reveal how democracies are drifting toward the very digital authoritarianism they once opposed.

Israel: exporting spyware

Israel, a democracy, permits private firms to export spyware under a state-regulated system.

Pegasus spyware, developed by the Israeli firm NSO Group, is marketed as a tool licensed to government agencies for counterterrorism and serious crime investigations.

However, investigations have linked it to the surveillance of journalists, activists, lawyers and political opponents.

Pegasus spyware can infiltrate smartphones without the user clicking on a link. It can grant access to messages, calls, microphones and cameras.

It has been linked to the surveillance of journalists in Mexico, opposition politicians in India and civil society groups in Hungary.

Israel tightened export rules in 2021, insisting sales go only to trusted governments for legitimate purposes. Yet the problem has not disappeared.

In early 2025, it was revealed Paragon Solutions, an Israeli spyware firm cofounded by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, developed a powerful surveillance tool capable of potentially compromising encrypted communications.

WhatsApp said last year nearly 100 journalists and members of civil society had been targeted using Paragon spyware.

Reporters at Citizen Lab later identified the spyware as a Paragon product, Graphite, and confirmed it had been used against journalists. It remains unclear who exactly the perpetrators were.

Through its export control system for offensive cyber tools, Israel is still allowing Israeli firms such as NSO Group and Paragon Solutions to sell spyware abroad, including Pegasus and Graphite.

This has contributed to concerns about the normalisation of commercial spyware.

India: Pegasus turned inward

In India, Amnesty International’s Security Lab reported forensic evidence of Pegasus being used on the phones of high-profile journalists.

Earlier reporting alleged Indian journalists, activists, lawyers and opposition figures appeared among potential targets. Following a petition, the Supreme Court will soon decide whether there should be an investigation into “India’s alleged use of Pegasus spyware on journalists, activists and public officials”.

The perpetrator has not been conclusively identified in those forensic reports, but NSO Group says Pegasus is licensed only to law enforcement and the intelligence agencies of sovereign states and government agencies.

The Indian government has denied wrongdoing, with IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw saying such surveillance was not possible under Indian law. The government later declined to file a detailed affidavit before the Supreme Court, citing national security.

These allegations sit within a wider pattern of democratic erosion in India. Critics have linked the Pegasus controversy to broader state practices, including:

• frequent internet shutdowns and online censorship

• legal pressure on journalists and activists

• online harassment of journalists, activists and members of marginalised groups

• and the stifling of dissent.

In 2023, Apple warned at least 20 Indian opposition politicians and journalists that their iPhones may have been targeted by “state-sponsored attackers”, reviving allegations the Indian government was using electronic surveillance against domestic critics. The Indian government has rejected the implication, but has announced an investigation.

Social media platforms have also been pressured by Indian government agencies and regulators to remove posts critical of the government. And supporters of the ruling party are known to organise online harassment campaigns of government critics.

A global problem

Other democracies – from Hungary to Turkey to Mexico – have experimented with spyware and aggressive online controls.

Technologies once hailed as enabling protest, connecting citizens and amplifying marginalised voices are now being redeployed for surveillance and control.

In 2024, global internet freedom declined for the 14th consecutive year. This was driven by censorship, surveillance, disinformation, platform restrictions and controls on internet access.

Governments of all types are blocking platforms, expanding monitoring, and deploying trolls and bots to tilt online debate.

For instance, Russia’s state-linked online influence operations have used coordinated troll farms to manipulate political discussions at home and abroad. Turkey’s pro-government “AKtroll” networks have also been accused of amplifying official narratives and harassing opposition voices online.

Gradual erosion of freedoms

Digital authoritarianism does not arrive overnight. It advances through normalisation: spyware licensed as “security”, platforms nudged into silencing dissent, internet shutdowns excused as “temporary”.

These measures, taken alone, may appear minor. Together, they gradually erode freedoms until democratic life itself is hollowed out.

Reversing this requires democracies to commit to strict controls on spyware exports. These controls must be backed by transparency, accountability and robust oversight.

Surveillance powers and online restrictions must be publicly justified and subject to independent review.

Equally vital is the protection of civil society. Journalists, activists and opposition groups need guarantees they can operate freely.

Ihsan Yilmaz is Deputy Directory (Research Development), Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation & Research Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Deakin University.

Nicholas Morieson is Research Fellow, Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University.

This article was first published on The Conversation.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez more than four years after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Live Law reported.

However, he will remain in jail as he also faces charges under the anti-terror law in a separate case filed in 2020, according to The Indian Express. He was arrested in the case in 2023.

A division bench on Wednesday allowed Parvez’s challenge to a December 2024 order by a trial court that denied him bail.

In the present case, Parvez was arrested in November 2021 under sections of the anti-terror law pertaining to waging war against the state, criminal conspiracy and terror funding.

He was also charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to waging, attempting to wage, abetting waging of war against the government, recruiting of a person for a terrorist act and criminal conspiracy.

Parvez is accused of supporting terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba’s activities through a network of overground workers, Bar and Bench reported.

The National Investigation Agency accused him of recruiting operatives, and gathering information about security forces and military installations.

In March 2023, the agency arrested him in a separate case pertaining to the raising of funds by non-governmental organisations for charity but diverting them for “secessionist and separatist activities”, The Indian Express reported.

He is associated with the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a union of nonprofit campaign and advocacy organisations in Srinagar.

In his bail appeal, Parvez said that he was a “factual stranger” to the alleged conspiracy and highlighted that the investigators had failed to establish any contact between him and operatives of the terror group.

He contended that an examination of his digital devices that were seized would show no proof of communication with alleged handlers or evidence of recruitment of overground workers, Bar and Bench reported.

Parvez also rejected the allegations that his visits to Pakistan in the past could link him to banned organisations. He said that the trips had been part of humanitarian and advocacy initiatives.

In October 2020, the NIA had conducted searches at Parvez’s home in the case pertaining to diversion of funds by NGOs. While he was not initially named in the case, he was subsequently arrested in March 2023.

In 2016, the activist was booked under the Public Safety Act after protests triggered by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani. He had spent 76 days in detention at the time.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read: Empty rooms, silenced voices: What remains of Kashmiri civil society’s valiant fight for justice

The Cockroach Janta Party, which started as a satirical political campaign, has announced that it will hold nationwide protests from Thursday, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged mismanagement in the conduct of competitive exams.

Abhijit Dipke, the campaign’s founder, added that an indefinite sit-in demonstration will be started at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on June 20 if the demand is not met by then.

“We will not leave until accountability is delivered,” PTI quoted the group as saying.

The Cockroach Janta Party describes itself as a “political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth”.

On June 6, it staged a protest at Jantar Mantar to demand Pradhan’s resignation in the wake of the cancellation of the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical college admissions following allegations of a paper leak.

Students and job seekers have also alleged irregularities in the Class 12 exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Staff Selection Commission test for government posts.

The nationwide protests will begin in Pune on Thursday. Demonstrations will be held in Lucknow on Friday. Protests will also be held in Amritsar, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Hyderabad, Dipke said.

He urged parents not to stop their children from speaking out against the “tyranny and wrong policies of the government”, PTI reported.

“The people who are in power can muzzle one dissenting voice, but they will not stop if we all start speaking out against the government,” he said. “Unity has power.”

Dipke added: “Paper leaks are taking place, servers are going down, and students are suffering. Who will take responsibility for this, and how long will this continue?”

The CJP was launched on May 16 in response to reports of remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant on the previous day comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”. Since then, the campaign has garnered more than 22 million followers on Instagram.

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

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Sneha.

Also read:

• ‘They have sold themselves’: At ‘cockroach’ gathering in Delhi, protestors rage against the system

• Does Abhijeet Dipke’s popularity signal a new age of Dalit leaders?

The bodies of the six Naga men who had been abducted on May 13, allegedly by armed Kuki groups, have been recovered, the Manipur Police said. This came a day after 14 Kukis who had been abducted the same day were released.

The police stated that the bodies were recovered after “nearly 24 hours of sustained search operations”. An investigation into the deaths was underway, they added.

At least 48 civilians from the Kuki and Naga communities had been taken hostage by armed groups in the state’s Kangpokpi and Senapati districts after three church leaders were killed and five others injured. Read on.

The Congress told the Election Commission that the returning officer had wrongly rejected the nomination of party leader Meenakshi Natarajan for the Rajya Sabha elections. Natarajan was the Congress’ sole candidate for the June 18 polls.

Her candidature had been rejected after the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that she had withheld information in her affidavit about a criminal case pending against her.

After meeting the poll panel, the Congress stated that “there is no criminal case that she could have disclosed” as the court was yet to take cognisance of the matter flagged by the BJP. The Election Commission must use its constitutional powers to do “corrective justice” immediately, the Opposition party said. Read on.

Trinamool Congress leader Sushmita Dev resigned as a Rajya Sabha MP and quit the party, citing personal and political reasons. While she did not give more details, she said that everyone has the right to change their mind.

The resignation came after Dev met Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi. Two days earlier, another Rajya Sabha MP of the TMC, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, resigned from the House and quit the party, citing the results of the recent West Bengal Assembly elections.

Since losing the state polls, the TMC has been facing several internal divisions. Read on.

Why the Trinamool Congress is collapsing like a house of cards, explains Anant Gupta

The Delhi High Court granted bail to Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez in a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act more than four years after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency. However, he will remain in jail as he also faces charges under the anti-terror law in a another case filed in 2020, in which he had been arrested in 2023.

The case in which he was granted bail pertains to allegations that he supported the activities of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist organisation through a network of overground workers. He is associated with the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a union of nonprofit campaign and advocacy organisations in Srinagar. Read on.

Empty rooms, silenced voices: What remains of Kashmiri civil society’s valiant fight for justice, writes Freny Manecksha

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

The Congress on Wednesday formally told the Election Commission that the returning officer had wrongly rejected the nomination of party leader Meenakshi Natarajan for the Rajya Sabha elections on the basis of objections filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Natarajan was the Congress’ sole candidate for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. Her nomination was rejected on Tuesday after the BJP claimed that she had withheld information in her affidavit about a criminal case against her in Telangana.

The returning officer had sought Natarajan’s response and given her until 6 pm on Tuesday to present her case. After considering her explanation, the officer rejected her nomination. However, Natarajan alleged that the Congress’ advocates “were not heard”.

On Wednesday, a delegation of Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala told reporters that they had made a detailed representation to the poll panel.

Singhvi said that the returning officer for the polls had passed a wrong order.

He said that Section 33A of the 1951 Representation of the People Act requires candidates to disclose cases filed against them that have a punishment of two years or more, and matters in which charges have been framed.

“The process of framing charges is a judicial process,” Singhvi said.

He added that following a private complaint, a magistrate takes cognisance of a matter.

Natarajan had received a notice to appear before the court and explain “why cognisance should not be taken”, Singhvi said.

“So, the notice she received was before any cognisance was taken,” he added. “Without cognisance, no criminal case exists in the eyes of the law.”

The Congress leader said that the returning officer had rejected Natarajan’s nomination without the court having taken cognisance. “There is no criminal case that she could have disclosed,” Singhvi said.

“We hope the EC realises that this will create a very bad, distorted, non-level playing field that strikes at the heart of democracy,” he added.

Singhvi further said that the Election Commission must use its constitutional powers to do “corrective justice” immediately. He added that the poll panel had sufficient time to withdraw the “unlawful order” against Natarajan on Wednesday.

Rajya Sabha polls

The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly is going to elect three members to the Rajya Sabha on June 18. With the Assembly’s effective strength at 229, a candidate requires 58 first-preference votes to win.

Of these seats, the BJP has 164 MLAs excluding the speaker. While the Congress has 63 MLAs, its ally Bharat Adivasi Party has one.

The BJP has the numbers to win two of the three seats as it needs 116 votes to do so. However, it will be left with 48 votes that are not sufficient to clinch the third seat.

Despite this, the Hindutva party fielded three candidates, raising concerns in the Congress about cross-voting and defections.

On Tuesday, the Congress flew most of its MLAs from Bhopal to Bengaluru, where the party is in power, while keeping a few senior legislators back in Madhya Pradesh, where it is in the Opposition.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Sneha.

The Manipur Police on Wednesday said that the bodies of the six Naga men who had been abducted on May 13, allegedly by armed Kuki groups, have been recovered.

This came a day after the United Naga Council confirmed that 14 Kuki hostages, who were abducted on the same day, were released.

The mortal remains of the six Naga men were recovered on Wednesday afternoon after “nearly 24 hours of sustained search operations involving around 450 personnel of the Manipur Police, Central Reserve Police Force and Assam Rifles, assisted by sniffer dogs and forensic expert teams”, stated the police.

They added that an investigation into the deaths was underway.

After nearly 24 hours of sustained search operations involving around 450 personnel of the Manipur Police, CRPF, and Assam Rifles, assisted by sniffer dogs and forensic expert teams, the mortal remains of six persons were recovered this afternoon. The deceased are believed to be…

— Manipur Police (@manipur_police) June 10, 2026

On May 13, at least 48 civilians from the Kuki and Naga communities were taken hostage by armed groups in the state’s Kangpokpi and Senapati districts.

The abductions had taken place after three church leaders were killed and five others injured when the vehicles they were travelling in were ambushed while they were returning from a meeting in Churachandpur to Kangpokpi. Another civilian was also killed and his wife wounded in Noney district.

On May 15, the Manipur Police said that 28 of the persons who had been abducted were released.

Fourteen Kuki hostages were released by the United Naga Council and Naga civil society organisations on Tuesday on “humanitarian grounds”.

Ng Lohro, the president of the United Naga Council, had said that he hoped the six Naga men would also be released soon.

On Wednesday, the bodies of the six men were found near the Kharam Vaiphei village in Kangpokpi district, Ukhrul Times reported.

A post-mortem examination will be conducted at Imphal’s Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, the newspaper reported.

After the attack on May 13, the apex body of the Kuki tribes, Kuki Inpi Manipur, had alleged that the armed Naga group Zeliangrong United Front-Kamson faction was behind the action. However, the authorities said that the involvement of militant outfits was being investigated.

The developments come amid tensions between Kukis and Nagas in Ukhrul that had erupted on February 7 after an alleged assault involving members of the Tangkhul Naga and the Kuki-Zo communities escalated into clashes.

The fresh violence came against the backdrop of the ethnic clashes that broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in the state in May 2023, leaving at least 260 persons dead and more than 59,000 persons displaced. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Sneha.

A Varanasi court on Wednesday set aside a magistrate court’s May order that refused to direct that a case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly describing Hindu deity Ram as a “mythological figure”, Live Law reported.

The additional district and sessions judge was hearing a revision plea against the May 27 order of the magistrate holding the plea demanding a first information report as non-maintainable.

The judge on Wednesday directed that the matter be heard afresh in light of decisions by the Supreme Court and the High Court.

The original complaint was filed by an advocate who had claimed that Gandhi’s comments were “hateful” and “controversial”, Live Law reported.

He approached the special court after his plea was rejected in May.

The complainant accused Gandhi of making repeated “absurd comments about the previous incarnations and great symbols of Sanatan Dharma”. He also accused the Opposition leader of insulting Hindus who believe in Sanatan Dharma.

Sanatana Dharma is a term some people use as a synonym for Hinduism.

“By delivering hate speech, they have committed a serious criminal offense”, Live Law quoted the complaint as having alleged.

It further argued that Gandhi’s comments were “even more despicable” in view of the Supreme Court’s Ram temple judgement.

The Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, by Hindutva extremists because they believed that it stood on the spot on which the deity Ram had been born.

In 2019, the Supreme Court held that the demolition of the Babri mosque was illegal, but handed over the land to a trust for a Ram temple to be constructed. At the same time, it directed that a five-acre plot in Ayodhya be allotted to Muslims for a mosque to be constructed.

In January 2024, the temple was inaugurated in a ceremony led by Modi.

In April 2025, Gandhi while speaking at Brown University in Rhode Island about Hindutva politics had described the deity as a “mythological figure” who was forgiving and compassionate.

“I don’t know of one person who we consider great in India who wasn’t of this type…all our all our mythological figures, Lord Ram was of that type where he was forgiving, he was compassionate,” Gandhi had said. “So, I don’t consider what the BJP says to be the Hindu idea.”

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal will remove the word “dham” from the name of the Jagannath temple in Digha, The Hindu reported on Tuesday.

The temple had been built by the previous Trinamool Congress government.

The decision to drop “dham” was taken by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari following a request from BJP leader and Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, the newspaper quoted the state secretariat as saying.

Sambit Patra, the Lok Sabha MP of Odisha’s Puri, where the main temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Jagannath is located, had on Tuesday handed a letter from Majhi to Adhikari.

Patra said on social media that Majhi had earlier written to the TMC government in West Bengal, urging it to reconsider the name. However, no decision was taken at that time, he added.

“There is only chaar dham [four divine abodes] in Hindu Sanatana,” The Hindu quoted Adhikari as saying. “In 2025, this temple was inaugurated and named Jagannath Dham. This move hurt the sentiment of all the Hindus in Odisha, and also the ones who stay in Bengal from Odisha. Nobody should play with the core Sanatana ideology. Now the government has changed and we have decided to act on this matter.”

Sanatana Dharma is a term some people use as a synonym for Hinduism.

The temple in Digha had been inaugurated by Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister at the time, in April 2025.

Adhikari, who was the leader of the Opposition at the time, had said that the structure built by the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation was a cultural centre called “Jagannath Dham Sanskriti Kendra” and not a Jagannath temple.

Edited by Sneha.

The Bombay High Court on Monday dismissed petitions filed by construction companies including subsidiaries of Larsen and Toubro, and an Adani Group-linked firm against a commercial suit relating to a slum redevelopment project, Bar and Bench reported.

Justice Gauri Godse ruled that the petitions had consumed “considerable long time” of the court and imposed costs of Rs 2 lakh on each of the respondents.

The interim pleas were filed by L&T Asian Realty Project LLP, L&T Realty Limited, Shiv Infra Vision Private Limited, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority’s chief executive officer and Portsmouth Buildcon Private Limited, which is linked to the Adani Group, according to Bar and Bench.

The pleas had invoked a rule in the Civil Procedure Code to seek the rejection of a commercial suit filed by KS Chamankar Enterprises and its partner.

KS Chamankar Enterprises had alleged conspiracy and mala fide removal as developer of the project in Mumbai.

It had been appointed as the developer for three housing societies. The firm stated that it had constructed a composite rehabilitation building before being abruptly terminated and replaced by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority, Bar and Bench reported.

KS Chamankar Enterprises challenged this in the High Court.

It alleged that the subsidiaries of Larsen and Toubro and Portsmouth Buildcon had colluded with the authorities to take control of the project.

L&T’s subsidiaries and the firm linked to the Adani Group had sought that the suit be rejected. They had cited the lack of cause of action, limitation and mandatory pre‑institution mediation under the Commercial Courts Act, the legal news outlet reported.

The High Court observed that the plaintiff had shown a cause of action and triable matters that cannot be decided at the preliminary stage.

The judge observed that despite settled law on the narrow scope of the rules in the Civil Procedure Code and sections of the Commercial Courts Act being cited, the respondents had kept pressing technical objections and consumed “considerable long time” of the court.

L&T Realty said in an email that the matter remains sub judice and the High Court order on the interim applications “does not constitute an adjudication on the merits of the underlying dispute”.

The allegations contained in the suit are “disputed and remain subject to judicial determination”, the company said, adding that “no findings on the merits of such allegations have been rendered” by the court.

Corrections and clarifications: This article has been updated to say that the court imposed “costs” on the companies instead of a “fine”, and to add a statement by L&T Realty.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

A Delhi court on Tuesday rejected the interim bail plea of Al-Falah University Chairperson Jawad Ahmad Siddiqui, accused in a Rs 493-crore money laundering case, PTI reported.

Additional Sessions Judge Sheetal Chaudhary Pradhan was hearing Siddiqui’s plea seeking six weeks’ interim bail to look after his wife, who is suffering from stage-4 metastatic ovarian cancer.

The court held that Siddiqui had failed to show that his wife required his exclusive care during cancer treatment. It noted that while Siddiqui's wife was undergoing treatment for a serious ailment, medical records described her condition as stable and did not indicate that she was terminally ill, bedridden or incapable of managing her daily routine.

Siddiqui was arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch in February in connection with alleged financial and administrative irregularities at Al-Falah University and was taken into custody by the ED in March.

The Al-Falah group has also been under scrutiny in an investigation linked to the November 10 blast near Delhi’s Red Fort. This was after it emerged that a doctor named Umar Nabi, was believed to have been driving the car that exploded, had been employed by the institution.

The money-laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate was based on two first information reports filed by the Delhi Police, which alleged that Al-Falah University had falsely claimed accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council and misrepresented its eligibility under the University Grants Commission Act.

The University Grants Commission had also said that the Al-Falah University is recognised only as a state private university and has never been eligible for central grants.

The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that Siddiqui played an active role in the “fraudulent misrepresentations to regulators/stakeholders and consequential admissions and fee collections”.

Siddiqui “exercised dominant control over Al-Falah Charitable Trust, Al-Falah University (including Al-Falah School of Medical Sciences and Research Centre) and related entities, and is found a key beneficiary of the unlawful proceeds”, it claimed.

The central agency alleged that as the managing trustee and chancellor, he exercised “complete administrative, financial and operational control, with other office-bearers functioning as nominal or proxy persons”.

More than Rs 110 crore was routed to family-controlled firms, it added.

The Delhi blast

The blast near the Red Fort metro station left 13 persons dead. At least nine persons have been arrested in connection with the blast.

Hours before the blast, the police also said that it had cracked an “inter-state and transnational terror module” in Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. The police said at the time that it had recovered 2,900 kg of improvised explosive device-making material in raids in several states.

During its investigation, the police had alleged that the key suspects in the case, including Nabi, who was a faculty member, used a room on the Al-Falah Medical College campus in Haryana’s Faridabad to plan logistics for transporting ammonium nitrate for multiple blasts in the National Capital Region.

The college is part of Al-Falah University.

An 18-year-old Dalit boy was killed allegedly by the family of a 15-year-old upper caste girl for purportedly being in a relationship with her in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal district, The Indian Express reported.

On Sunday night, Ketan Lal received a call from the girl’s phone and went to her home, where he was allegedly held and beaten up by her family, the newspaper quoted Senior Superintendent of Police Shweta Choubey as having stated.

“He was kept there till Monday morning and allegedly assaulted by her father and grandfather,” Choubey said.

Ketan Lal was accompanied by his friend, who was also allegedly beaten up.

On Monday morning, the girl’s father called Ketan Lal’s father Dhampal Lal to inform him about the matter. “[The girl’s father] said that he had killed my son and thrown him into a stream,” The Indian Express quoted the complainant as having alleged.

Dhampal Lal found his son to be severely injured at the site. On way to the hospital, Ketan Lal alleged that he had been beaten “because he belonged to a Scheduled Caste”, the father stated.

Ketan Lal succumbed to his injuries during treatment.

The complainant said that he recorded a video of the statements made by Ketan Lal before he died and submitted them to the police.

The father and grandfather of the girl have been arrested on charges of murder and common intention, and under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, The Hindu reported.

Dhampal Lal told The Indian Express that his family should be provided security, alleging that “if they could kill my son, they can kill any of us”.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The nomination of Meenakshi Natarajan, the Congress’ sole candidate for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, was rejected on Tuesday after the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that she had withheld information about a criminal case in her affidavit

BJP state general secretary Rahul Kothari had raised objections about Natarajan allegedly failing to disclose in her election affidavit details of a criminal case pending against her in Telangana, reported The Indian Express.

The returning officer had sought Natarajan’s response and given her until 6 pm on Tuesday to present her case. After considering her explanation, the officer rejected her nomination, Aaj Tak reported. However, Natarajan alleged at a press conference that the Congress’ advocates “were not heard”, reported PTI.

“What was limited to vote theft, has now become seat theft,” she added.

The Congress said that no criminal case has been registered against Natarajan. “Only a notice has been received stating why proceedings for 10 crore compensation should not be initiated against her and other people,” said Congress MP Vivek Tankha.

Urging his party colleagues to approach the Supreme Court, he said: “This is nothing but murder of democracy.”

VIDEO | Rajya Sabha Polls: As her nomination was cancelled in Madhya Pradesh, Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan says, "When the number of members was not adequate, and the BJP fielded third candidate, it all started from there, and we started to understand that they are doing… pic.twitter.com/cmhViTdb76

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 9, 2026

The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly is going to elect three members to the Rajya Sabha on June 18. With the Assembly’s effective strength at 229, a candidate requires 58 first-preference votes to win.

Of these seats, the BJP has 164 MLAs excluding the speaker. While the Congress has 63 MLAs, its ally Bharat Adivasi Party one.

The BJP has fielded three candidates – its National General Secretary Tarun Chugh, state unit Secretary Rajneesh Agrawal and Madhya Pradesh Fishermen Welfare Board chairman Mahesh Kewat.

Earlier in the day, the Congress flew most of its MLAs from Bhopal to Bengaluru, where the party is in power, while keeping a few senior legislators back in Madhya Pradesh, where it is in the Opposition.

This came as the BJP’s decision to field a third candidate triggered concerns within the Congress about cross-voting and defections.

The BJP has the numbers to win two of the three seats as it needs 116 votes to do so. However, it will be left with 48 votes that are not sufficient to clinch the third seat.

Commenting on the rejection of Natarajan’s nomination, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari accused the BJP of “political-thuggery”.

Former Chief Minister Kamal Nath alleged that the BJP had abandoned “political decency to snatch the Congress seat”.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Sneha.

Two soldiers of the Indian Army died in an accidental grenade blast in the Uri sector of Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, PTI quoted unidentified officials as saying.

A hand grenade reportedly exploded accidentally during the routine handing over of equipment at a camp in Uri, injuring the two soldiers.

They were taken to the Army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar, where doctors declared them dead on arrival.

Both the soldiers who died were from Maharashtra, The Indian Express reported.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

India’s nuclear modernisation programme is increasingly focused on developing long-range weapons capable of striking targets throughout China, said global arms watchdog Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, on Monday.

However, it added that India’s nuclear planning continues to be shaped by its long-standing rivalry with Pakistan.

The organisation said that New Delhi slightly expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2025 and continued developing new nuclear delivery systems.

According to the organisation’s assessment, India has 190 nuclear warheads, 10 more than last year, while Pakistan has 170, the same as last year.

Pakistan has continued to develop new delivery systems and accumulate fissile material, indicating that its nuclear arsenal might expand over the coming decade, it added.

The organisation mentioned that during the four-day military conflict between New Delhi and Islamabad in May 2025, India attacked Pakistani air and missile bases “that are likely to have nuclear-related roles”, but both sides took steps to avoid escalation.

China is estimated to have 620 nuclear warheads. The report said that China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country. It added that China could have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as Russia or the United States by the end of the decade.

The report also estimated that the world had 12,187 nuclear warheads in January 2026. Of these, about 9,745 were in military stockpiles for potential use. Around 4,012 warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft, and the rest were in central storage.

It added that between 2,100 and 2,200 deployed warheads were on high operational alert, with most belonging to Russia and the US.

China and India may now occasionally keep a small number of nuclear warheads mounted on missiles during peacetime, the report said.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

A Delhi court on Tuesday stayed a magistrate court’s order directing that a first information report be registered against commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra for his social media posts in which he made sexually abusive remarks about the women employees of news outlet Newslaundry, Bar and Bench reported.

Additional Sessions Judge Purshotam Pathak of the Saket court claimed that the words used by Iyer-Mitra were in the form of shayari, or poetry, and did not specifically mention any person.

“The meticulous interpretation of the words and sentences used can only be done after hearing both the parties on merits on the revision petition,” Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying.

The sessions judge passed the order afresh after the Delhi High Court had set aside his earlier order staying the direction for an FIR to be registered, observing that it was passed without any reasons.

In May, noting that the sessions court had stayed the registration of the FIR without explaining its rationale, the Delhi High Court had remanded the matter to the lower court and directed it to pass a fresh, reasoned order.

The High Court asked the Newslaundry journalists and Iyer-Mitra to appear before the sessions court on May 22. It directed the sessions court to decide the case within four weeks.

Newslaundry’s Managing Editor Manisha Pande and other women journalists working for the news outlet had approached the magistrate court, stating that Iyer-Mitra had repeatedly used derogatory language and slurs to target them.

On April 23, the magistrate court said that Iyer-Mitra could be charged under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to sexual harassment and insulting the modesty of a woman for the contents of the tweets.

The judge also observed that the “police investigation is necessary as the offence has been committed in cyber space”. He ordered the registration of an FIR against Iyer-Mitra for offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to sexual harassment and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.

The journalists have separately also approached the Delhi High Court with a defamation suit against Iyer-Mitra, seeking a public apology and Rs 2 crore in damages.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Fresh tensions have erupted along the Bangladesh-India border as Dhaka accuses Indian authorities of attempting to force hundreds of people into Bangladesh without following established diplomatic and legal procedures, triggering concerns over human rights, border security and the future of bilateral relations.

Over the past week, the Border Guard Bangladesh says it has thwarted at least 18 separate “push-in” attempts involving nearly 200 people, including women and children, across multiple border districts.

The incidents have transformed what was once a recurring border management issue into a significant diplomatic flashpoint.

Bangladesh maintains that any individual claimed to be a Bangladeshi citizen must be repatriated through formal verification and diplomatic channels.

Security analysts and human rights advocates warn that bypassing these mechanisms not only violates international norms but also risks creating a humanitarian crisis along one of South Asia’s most sensitive borders.

According to Border Guard Bangladesh accounts, alleged push-in attempts were reported in Lalmonirhat, Panchagarh, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj, Jhenaidah, Netrokona, Jashore, Joypurhat, Sylhet and Thakurgaon between June 4 and June 6.

In several cases, Border Guard Bangladesh personnel reportedly prevented groups from entering Bangladesh and forced them to remain in the border’s zero line. Some groups allegedly spent days stranded in no-man's land.

One of the most prominent incidents occurred at the Bangabari border in Chapainawabganj, where 28 people, including women and children, were reportedly left stranded after being unable to cross into Bangladesh due to BGB resistance.

Local reports described shortages of food, exposure to rain and illness among those trapped between the two countries.

Border Guard Bangladesh officials say the Border Security Force claimed many of those involved were Bangladeshi nationals.

Bangladesh, however, insists that nationality must be verified through official mechanisms before any repatriation can occur.

The dispute touches a politically sensitive issue in India, where alleged illegal immigration from Bangladesh has long featured prominently in political debates, particularly in West Bengal and Assam.

Analysts note that migration and border security have become central themes in Indian domestic politics, especially under the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has repeatedly pledged stronger action against what it describes as illegal infiltration.

However, Bangladeshi observers argue that domestic political considerations cannot justify unilateral actions along the border.

Former Air Force officer and security analyst Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury said the issue should not be viewed solely as border management.

“Attempts to send people across the border without following established repatriation procedures undermine international norms and damage bilateral relations,” he said.

Human rights groups warn that the greatest victims are often poor and vulnerable people caught between competing political narratives.

Human rights activist Nur Khan Liton said unilateral push-ins could escalate tensions, increase the risk of violence and trigger broader humanitarian concerns. He warned that previous periods of heightened border tensions have often coincided with increased violence and instability in frontier regions.

The latest incidents also revive long-standing concerns over border governance between the two neighbours. Alongside disputes over alleged illegal migration, Bangladesh and India have frequently faced tensions over border killings, smuggling and the treatment of civilians living near the frontier.

While both governments publicly emphasise friendly relations and regional cooperation, analysts say the recent push-in allegations reveal a growing trust deficit.

For Bangladesh, the issue extends beyond border security.

It is increasingly being framed as a test of sovereignty, human rights and diplomatic norms.

With nearly 200 people reportedly involved in push-in attempts within just three days, pressure is mounting on both countries to resolve the dispute through formal diplomatic channels before a border management problem evolves into a larger political crisis.

This article was first published on Dhaka Tribune.

“The more you torture us in Bengal, the more problems you will face in Delhi,” former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had warned the Bharatiya Janata Party on May 24. The Trinamool Congress chairperson was making her first public comments after her party lost West Bengal to the BJP as workers of her organisation were bearing the brunt of post-poll violence.

In the two weeks since then, though, it is the Trinamool whose problems have compounded, both in Bengal and Delhi. A majority of the party’s 80 MLAs defied Banerjee last week by choosing their own leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly. Media reports put their number at 58. On Monday, Trinamool MPs in the Lok Sabha broke into two groups.

MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, a veteran leader of the party, told reporters in Delhi that as many as 20 of the Trinamool’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs had decided to ally with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance to work for the state’s “development”. Banerjee’s party is the third-largest constituent of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance and has been a fierce opponent of the BJP for years.

The leading faces of this rebellion within the Trinamool have trained their guns on the party’s national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, who is the nephew of Mamata Banerjee. They blame him for killing inner-party democracy and accuse him of large-scale corruption that supposedly made the Trinamool unpopular.

However, others in the party allege that the BJP has engineered the split by luring defectors and using the investigative agencies to threaten them.

Both sides might be understating the importance of a third factor behind the collapse: the gradual decline of the party’s organisational structure.

In the name of dynasty

Soon after the results of the West Bengal Assembly elections trickled in on May 4, a host of Trinamool politicians began to blame Abhishek Banerjee for the party’s poor performance. They faulted him for purportedly sidelining leaders who had stayed with the Trinamool through thick and thin and using the political consultancy firm, Indian Political Action Committee, to control the party.

This line of criticism echoed what Trinamool politicians who had switched over to the BJP previously had said about the party, sparking speculation about a fresh wave of defections from the Trinamool. The conjecture only intensified after the controversy over the appointment of the leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly.

Though the Trinamool was legally entitled to pick someone for the post, its choice of the octogenarian politician Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay for the role did not immediately receive the BJP-appointed speaker’s approval.

Soon, two MLAs from the party claimed that they had not signed the letter nominating Chattopadhyay for the position. The state police, which now reported to the BJP government, even opened a forgery investigation based on their claims. On Tuesday, the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department raided Mamata Banerjee’s house in connection with this case.

On June 3, these two MLAs held a meeting with several other Trinamool MLAs in which they decided that one of them, Ritabrata Banerjee, would become the leader of opposition. This time, the speaker promptly accepted the choice.

The party has moved the Calcutta High Court against this appointment.

Curiously, these MLAs declared Mamata Banerjee as their leader at this meeting. This was meant to convey that their rebellion was against her nephew, who is the party’s national general secretary.

The sequence of events has led many to draw parallels with Maharashtra, where Eknath Shinde pitted himself against Aaditya Thackeray, the heir apparent of the Shiv Sena, and broke the party. In Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, whom the Hindutva party made chief minister after its victory, is known to have exited the Trinamool in 2020 primarily because of the importance Mamata Banerjee gave to her bhaipo or nephew.

Operation Lotus

But those in the party who have not joined this rebellion dismiss the theory that dynastic control of the Trinamool had led to its split. They instead blame the BJP’s pressure tactics.

“These same people made Abhishek the crown prince and used to call him their commander-in-chief,” MP Kalyan Banerjee said at a news conference on Tuesday. “So what changed? We are no longer in power. Is that it?”

He also pointed out that the Trinamool MPs allying with the BJP had reportedly met at the Delhi home of Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Monday, adding that Suvendu Adhikari, too, had attended the meeting. This, in his view, made it clear that the BJP had hatched the conspiracy and those taking part in it were either acting out of greed or fear.

“They [Trinamool rebels] have become so used to standing with the chief minister that they are still doing it,” Kalyan Banerjee claimed, harking back to Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year reign in the state. “They cannot live without power. They don’t want to hit the ground and play the role of the opposition. Now they will be asked to help in putting the rest of us behind bars.”

He was referring to the string of Trinamool politicians who have been arrested under various cases since the BJP came to power in Bengal.

Organisational Woes

In some cases, the BJP may have attracted Trinamool MPs without dangling a carrot or wielding a stick. Former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, for example, has allegedly joined the rebel group, causing much displeasure to the loyalist faction of Trinamool MPs.

“You are rushing to Delhi because Amit Shah has called you?” Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra wrote on X, tagging Pathan. “Have some shame and some spine.”

Pathan hails from Gujarat and became a first-time MP from Baharampur, West Bengal, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He had defeated Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a five-term MP and former leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, from the seat.

He was criticised for not visiting his constituency after it witnessed a communal riot last year.

Pathan is not alone. The Trinamool has long faced criticism for sending political lightweights to Parliament. And even before it lost in the elections, the party was seen to be relying too heavily on I-PAC, its political consultancy firm, rather than its own grassroots network of workers.

Since the Trinamool’s defeat last month, loyalists like Kalyan Banerjee have also publicly spoken out against what they describe as the Trinamool’s excessive dependence on I-PAC.

Both these factors point to the weakening of Trinamool’s organisational structure, which might be a major reason for its rapid collapse within just weeks of losing power.

The West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department searched the Kolkata home of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

This was part of an investigation into allegations made by rebel TMC MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha that 14 forged signatures were included in a letter submitted to support the appointment of Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

Banerjee was in Delhi during the day. Her residence is also an office of the Opposition party. TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who is Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, had skipped summons in the case. Read on.

Fourteen Kuki persons who had been held hostage in Manipur since May 13 were released by the United Naga Council and Naga civil society organisations. Ng Lohro, the president of the United Naga Council, said that he hoped the six Naga men who continue to be held by armed groups would be released soon.

They were among the more than 38 persons from the Kuki and Naga communities had been taken hostage by armed groups in the state’s Kangpokpi and Senapati districts on May 13. On May 15, the Manipur Police said that 28 of the persons who had been abducted were released. Read on.

The Congress took several of its MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, barring a few senior legislators, from Bhopal to Bengaluru ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls in the state on June 18. It is “important to keep an eye out because of the way BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] is trying to cause disruptions”, said Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Umang Singhar.

The Congress is the ruling party in Karnataka and is in the Opposition in Madhya Pradesh.

The BJP is expected to win two of the three Upper House seats in the polls, and the Congress the third. Read on.

A Patna court directed that no coercive action be taken against Bihar educator and YouTuber Faizal Khan, popularly known as Khan Sir, in an attempted murder case until the next hearing. Khan had been booked after two of his security guards allegedly told the police that he ordered them to open fire during violence outside his coaching institute in Patna on June 2.

The case came days after Khan claimed that “eight to ten rounds of gunfire” were fired outside his coaching institute, Khan Global Studies, after a group allegedly vandalised the premises in Patna’s Musallahpur area. Read on.

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The Bandung Conference of 1955 – it’s hard to think of another event on which so much ink has been spilled in exchange for such little knowledge. Ten years after the Conference, the Indian diplomat GH Jansen lamented that much of what we know of Bandung is based on what people think happened at this conference rather than what actually happened there.

In 2014, the political scientist Robert Vitalis reconfirmed Jansen’s hypothesis in a blistering critique of the Bandung scholarship which, he showed, romanticises the Conference without adequately historicising it.

Ironically, the most famous Third World conference (or what is now called the “Global South”) lacks a proper archival history of its own. In fact, the last time someone drew on the full set of conference proceedings to write about it was in 1955, when the American scholar George M Kahin was given access to them for a mere 12 hours.

My aim here is to reveal snippets from the archival traces of this conference and provide a flavour of the goings on through a fleeting glimpse into the mind of one of the chief protagonists of this conference: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. I rely on an unusual historical artifact: Nehru’s note pad from the conference. The slip pad is preserved in the papers of the Indian diplomat Subimal Dutt in the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library in Delhi.

31 ½ minutes

On April 16, 1955, the Indian delegation had parked their own aircraft in Jakarta (which also brought three other delegations – Afghanistan, Burma and Egypt) and boarded a Garuda airplane, Indonesia’s national carrier, for Bandung. Three days later, on the second official day of the Conference, when Nehru got down to making notes, he used a slip pad from this plane.

A quick scroll immediately reveals a curious habit. Every time a speaker makes an intervention, Nehru meticulously notes down the exact time taken by each speaker. Pakistan’s premier Mohammad Bogra spoke for 19 minutes. The Philippines’ Carlos Romulo starts his speech at 11:06 ½ minutes and speaks for exactly 31 ½ minutes. Sudan for 19, Syria for 17, Thailand for 19, and so on. Occasionally, his punctiliousness even bears out in time calculations scribbled on the edge of the folios.

Somewhat obsessive, one would think, but in an informal meeting of delegation heads on April 17, Nehru had appealed against making opening speeches. With 29 states present, these speeches alone would exhaust two precious days, leaving less time for actual discussions, he had reasoned.

He thought of opening speeches as grandstanding acts wherein leaders usually whipped up controversial issues to curry favor with their target audiences, domestic constituencies, and international allies. Such speeches would undermine any spirit of compromises that a large conference like Bandung would necessarily have to adopt during on camera proceedings.

Nehru was received with much deference in this first-of-its-kind gathering of leaders from across Asia and Africa. Several of those present looked up to him as an inspiring anti-colonial nationalist and prominent world leader. They were hesitant to oppose him even if they disagreed, so they nodded swiftly to his suggestion. But later that day, Pakistan’s Mohammad Ali Bogra, who had missed the informal meeting because he arrived late to Bandung and had a history of verbal slugfests with Nehru, became furious that such an important decision had been made in his absence. He torpedoed Nehru’s suggestion the next day, insisting that he would make a speech. He found support from some other delegations, most notably Turkey.

But it was Momolu Dukuly, the Liberian leader, who made the clinching argument. Dukuly argued that unlike larger countries like India, who were often vocal and heard on international platforms, smaller countries like his rarely had similar opportunities. Speechifying in international affairs was a legitimate diplomatic flex, and not just a matter of taking public stances. This was a logic hard to refute for even Nehru. Accordingly, opening speeches were reintroduced, with two riders: they were optional and speakers should keep to 15 minutes each.

It turned out that most delegations were actually keen on delivering opening speeches – in fact, twenty-one countries immediately registered to speak. Eventually, only India, Burma, and Saudi Arabia decided against making an opening address (Afghanistan, China, North Vietnam, and Yemen preferred to submit only written statements).

Refusing to make a speech himself, Nehru sat through the speeches quietly, a tad annoyed, perhaps even silently bristling, as his pen bore through the pages: 19 minutes, 31.5 minutes, 19 minutes. It is clear he was making a point – all were above 15.

Nehru, the Doodler

Among other things, the slip pad also reveals Nehru’s unheralded talent for doodling. Doodles are “fascinating byproducts of the tension between work and play”. The word comes from the German word, Dödel, meaning a fool or simpleton, and thus doodling originally signified foolish drawings.

One writer calls them “errant and wasteful gestures” which contain in them possibilities of literary subversion. Others think of them as expressions of the subconscious. Still others wonder if they really are anything more than how they appear: random scrawls.

In any case, the literature doesn’t scream in favor of any of these perspectives with confidence, although all would agree that doodles are, at least in the moment of their formation, purposeless and products of distraction. Nehru displays a range from squiggly lines – a dot gone dizzy, to a rip on German Swiss artist Paul Klee’s description of a line as “a dot out for a walk” – to mandala-shaped circles to fishy ovals.

But several of his doodles are notably of a recurring shape: the top half of these doodles is a version of an inverted teardrop, a spinning top, or a hot air balloon. The bottom is a hull-shaped sketch – as if he could be flying and sinking at the same time (which perhaps best represents his feelings about this gathering?).

Nehru’s moments of boredom are also well entrenched. At one point, he scrawls his name in Urdu at the bottom of a page, then adds it in Hindi, and yet again, in English. This aimless scribbling is a reassuring relic that the high and mighty succumb to conference ennui as frequently as the everyday academic.

On Palestine

Of more serious nature, however, are the insights one gains about Nehru’s impressions of the main committee discussions. He takes extensive notes from various speeches which reflect the contentious nature of these discussions. Nehru often notes down the names of the speakers, which even the official proceedings of the conference do not do. So, it is through Nehru’s diary, we now know for certain, that the main intervention on the Palestine issue at this conference was made by Ahmed al Shukeiri.

Born in Lebanon and tutored in Jerusalem, Shukeiri’s diplomatic career encapsulated the forcefully uprooted and untethered multi-nationality of a Palestinian life. Shukeiri was a “Palestinian of English culture,” as an Arab colleague once defined him, who was sent to Washington to set up the Arab Office in 1945.

Sometime later, Shukeiri was brought back to the Arab Office at Jerusalem. From these semi-diplomatic positions, the Palestinian lawyer graduated into a full-fledged diplomatic role when he was made a member of the Syrian delegation to the UN in 1949. He would emerge as one of the strongest advocates for Palestine at the United Nations.

In 1951, he was also appointed as the Assistant Secretary General of the Arab League. From 1957 to 1962, he would serve as Saudi Arabia’s Minister for State for UN Affairs and its UN permanent representative. In 1964, Shukeiri would write the Palestinian National Charter and become the founding president of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

At Bandung, as a member of the Syrian delegation, Shukeiri was performing his three roles for Syria, the Arab League, and Palestine, when Khalid Azm, the Syrian foreign minister, turned to Shukeiri to make the Arab case for Palestine. Shukeiri’s forceful intervention, ably supported by other Arab leaders, transformed Palestine from an Arab cause to a wider “Third World” issue.

Einstein’s Obituary

In the possession of a New York bookseller are two pages from a Garuda airline slip pad which contain Nehru’s obituary of Albert Einstein. The German physicist had died the very day the Bandung Conference commenced. From Bandung, Nehru wrote a heartfelt tribute addressed to Einstein’s wife.

One of Einstein’s last letters had been sent to Nehru on April 6. He had pleaded with Nehru to intervene in the fast deteriorating standoff between the People’s Republic of China and the United States. The American administration had threatened to use nuclear weapons. Einstein had urged the Indian premier to speak with Zhou Enlai at Bandung.

To Nehru, the wispy haired genius, “the greatest scientist of the age,” had been a moral beacon as much a scientific one, who epitomised a science that allied itself steadfastly with moral aims, and a morality that was rooted in scientific temper.

He “would not compromise with evil or untruth”, Nehru wrote simply in his tribute. Deep down, it was a kind of morality that one assumes spoke to Nehru’s personal commitments. In this, he was much closer to Einstein than to his idol Gandhi whose morality could be suspiciously hollow on science.

Nehru’s thoughtful note was written, possibly, in a quiet moment of contemplation in Bandung. But it was hurriedly scribbled across two pages, which were then most likely torn off from the same slip pad.

In writing this, one can sense Nehru’s regret that Einstein’s letter had remained unanswered, mostly because the Indian premier had a punishing schedule in the days leading up to Bandung.

But the scientist would have been pleased to know that Nehru was working the backchannels to convince Zhou Enlai. Indeed, Bandung’s most dramatic announcement came on April 23, when Zhou Enlai announced that the PRC was ready to negotiate with America.

Vineet Thakur is a University Lecturer at the Institute for History, Leiden University.

This article was first published on India in Transition, a publication of the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania.

Fourteen Kuki persons who had been held hostage in Manipur since May 13 were released on Tuesday by the United Naga Council and Naga civil society organisations, said Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.

They were released at the district headquarters in Senapati on “humanitarian grounds” at about 3.36 pm in the presence of personnel from the state police, Assam Rifles, Central Armed Police Forces and district administration officials, Ukhrul Times reported.

Ng Lohro, the president of the United Naga Council, said that he hoped the six Naga men who continue to be held by armed groups would be released soon.

On May 13, more than 38 persons from the Kuki and Naga communities had been taken hostage by armed groups in the state’s Kangpokpi and Senapati districts, said Manipur Home Minister Govindas Konthoujam.

The abductions had taken place after three church leaders were killed and five others injured when the vehicles they were travelling in were ambushed while they were returning from a meeting in Churachandpur to Kangpokpi. Another civilian was also killed and his wife wounded in Noney district.

On May 15, the Manipur Police said that 28 of the persons who had been abducted were released.

The 14 Kuki persons were to be released on June 1. However, the release was cancelled after protests by some Naga groups.

On Tuesday, the Nagaland chief minister said that the release of the Kuki hostages “reflects our respect for human life, commitment to human rights and belief that even amidst conflict, humanity must prevail”.

He added that he hoped the development would “contribute to restoring trust, healing divisions and paving the way for lasting peace in Manipur”.

Paotinkai Chongloi, one of the hostages who was released, said that they had been “well treated” and were provided with “the best food available in the area”.

“We have learned a great thing from our Naga brothers,” he said. “They have been extraordinary, special and unique.”

After the attack on May 13, the apex body of the Kuki tribes, Kuki Inpi Manipur, had alleged that the armed Naga group Zeliangrong United Front-Kamson faction was behind the actions. However, the authorities said that the involvement of militant outfits was being investigated.

The developments come amid tensions between Kukis and Nagas in Ukhrul that had erupted on February 7 after an alleged assault involving members of the Tangkhul Naga and the Kuki-Zo communities escalated into clashes.

The fresh violence came against the backdrop of the ethnic clashes that broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in the state in May 2023, leaving at least 260 persons dead and more than 59,000 persons displaced. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.

Inputs from Rokibuz Zaman. Edited by Sneha.

Jitendra drives his autorickshaw every day in Delhi’s scorching heat. He travels from his home in Sangam Vihar, Asia’s largest unauthorised slum, to neighbouring Sainik Farm, an affluent and planned locality in South Delhi.

“When I drive to areas like Sainik Farm, which have more trees and open spaces, I get some relief,” said Jitendra. “But congested areas like Sangam Vihar are very hot.”

Studies have shown that there is a correlation between temperatures and the way a city is built. Concretised, congested, and densely populated areas experience higher temperatures.

How does this show up on the ground in Delhi?

To find out, we visited four neighbourhoods with a temperature measuring device. Watch our report.

The Congress took several of its MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, barring a few senior legislators, from Bhopal to Bengaluru on Wednesday ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls in the state on June 18, PTI reported.

The Congress is the ruling party in Karnataka and is in the Opposition in Madhya Pradesh.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Umang Singhar told the news agency that the Congress MLAs “will definitely go to the state where our government is in power”. It is “important to keep an eye out because of the way BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] is trying to cause disruptions”, he said.

While 48 Congress MLAs boarded a flight on Tuesday afternoon, another batch of legislators was likely to travel the evening, The Hindu reported.

The 230-member Assembly is going to elect three members to the Rajya Sabha on June 18. With the Assembly’s effective strength at 229, a candidate requires 58 first-preference votes to win.

Of these seats, the BJP has 164 MLAs excluding the speaker. While the Congress has 63 MLAs, its ally Bharat Adivasi Party one.

The BJP has the numbers to win two of the three seats as it needs 116 votes to do so. However, it will be left with 48 votes that are not sufficient to clinch the third seat.

As it stands, the Congress has 63 MLAs, giving it enough votes to win the third seat. This is despite the High Court having barred one MLA from voting. Another MLA’s vote is uncertain because of a separate court petition seeking her disqualification.

The BJP initially fielded its National General Secretary Tarun Chugh and state unit Secretary Rajneesh Agrawal. It later named Mahesh Kewat, the chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Fishermen Welfare Board, as its third candidate.

The Congress has only fielded former MP Meenakshi Natarajan.

The BJP nominating the third candidate has led to concerns in the Congress’ state leadership about possible poaching attempts.

The Congress’ state chief Jitu Patwari said that while the BJP speaks about women’s empowerment, it had “fielded a candidate against our women nominee despite lacking eight to ten MLAs”, The Times of India reported.

“They will try to influence MLAs by any means,” Patwari alleged. “This is an attempt to crush democracy.”

Congress MLA Babu Singh Jandel claimed that he had received “an offer of Rs 10 crore” to switch sides, The Indian Express reported.

भारतीय जनता पार्टी लोकतांत्रिक संस्थाओं को कमजोर कर देश को तानाशाही की ओर ले जाने का प्रयास कर रही है।

कांग्रेस पार्टी लोकतंत्र, संविधान और जनता की आवाज़ की रक्षा के लिए प्रतिबद्ध है। हमारी लड़ाई सत्ता की नहीं, बल्कि उस विचारधारा के खिलाफ है जो लोकतांत्रिक मूल्यों को कुचलना… pic.twitter.com/kUwirmPXr8

— Umang Singhar (@UmangSinghar) June 9, 2026

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan on Monday said that his 1995 film Father, Son and Holy War was removed by YouTube for allegedly being “too violent” and condemned it as an act of censorship by the video sharing platform.

The filmmaker said that the documentary “records the violence caused by religious fanatics and politicians vying for power”, and described it as “an exposé of violence, not an endorsement” of it.

“Shame on YouTube!” Patwardhan added on social media. “Remove the censors, not good sense.”

While the film was removed from Patwardhan’s channel, it is available on another channel called Alukuchi Malukuchi.

Father, Son and Holy War examines the intersection of Hindutva, anxieties about masculinity and the use of misogynistic rhetoric by Hindu and Muslim leaders to justify violence.

It won two National Film Awards in 1995 for the best investigative documentary and best film on social problems.

The documentary filmmaker had also gone to court after public broadcaster Doordarshan refused to telecast the film in 2001. After the Bombay High Court sided with the filmmaker, the channel challenged the judgement before the Supreme Court.

In 2006, the Supreme Court directed Doordarshan to screen the film, describing the national broadcaster’s decision as “highly irrational” and a “blatant violation” of the right guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution”, The Wire reported.

Article 19(1)(a) guarantees the freedom of speech and expression.

This is not the first time that Patwardhan’s films have faced hurdles on YouTube.

In 2019, the platform put an age restriction on his 1992 documentary Ram Ke Naam, allowing only users above age 18 to watch it.

The film otherwise holds a U certificate for unrestricted public exhibition from the Central Board for Film Certification. However, it now opens on YouTube with a disclaimer saying that it may be “inappropriate for some users”.

The film examines Hindutva group Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s campaign to build a Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, which they believe is the spot on which the deity had been born.

In 2019, Patwardhan had also pointed out that his 2011 documentary Jai Bhim Comrade had similarly been restricted.

Jai Bhim Comrade explores the lives of Dalits in Mumbai, using as a starting point the 1997 Ramabai Nagar killings, when 10 members of the community died in police firing during a protest against the desecration of a statue of BR Ambedkar in Mumbai.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read:

• Anand Patwardhan interview: ‘You can’t take the art out of politics or the politics out of art’
• Anand Patwardhan interview: ‘I would be thrilled if my films became obsolete, but sadly they don’t’

On May 24, lakhs of members of Scheduled Tribe communities from across India gathered at the Red Fort in New Delhi. They were there for the Janjati Sanskritik Samagam, or “tribal cultural confluence”. It had been organised by the Janjati Suraksha Manch, or “tribal protection forum”.

The event was ostensibly being held to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of the revolutionary Adivasi leader Birsa Munda. Publicity material also stated that it was intended to call for the preservation and protection of tribal culture and identity.

That the event had the Indian government’s approval was apparent from the fact that its chief guest was Home Minister Amit Shah. In his speech on the occasion, Shah likened the event to the Ulgulan, Birsa Munda’s revolt against exploiters from outside the region to which he belonged, in present-day Jharkhand. “This andolan will connect us to the earth, save our culture and unite our religion,” Shah said.

What had not been spelt out in promotional material was the specific demand at the heart of this call for protection: that tribals who converted to Christianity should lose their status as tribals.

Organisers that Scroll spoke to admitted this plainly, as well as the fact that they chose not to centre this agenda in publicity material. “We couldn’t have an event at the Red Fort with delisting as the main focus, so we gave it the name Janjati Sanskritik Samagam,” said Megha Oraon, the Jharkhand spokesperson of the Janjati Suraksha Manch. “But our main agenda was delisting.”

Five days after the gathering, on May 29, a delegation of 25 tribal representatives from the Janjati Suraksha Manch, from across India, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and presented him a memorandum listing their demands.

It was perhaps the most visible week for an organisation that was founded 20 years ago, and is affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, a Sangh Parivar organisation whose stated aim is to work for the welfare of tribals. The Janjati Suraksha Manch, too, falls under the umbrella of the Sangh Parivar.

Megha noted that the organisation began planning for the event almost two years ago. “Tribals from every state in the country belonging to over 500 communities attended the event,” he said. “Our estimate is that over three lakh people attended it.”

The central demand, of delisting converted tribals, is a controversial one with a complex background. Organisations like the Manch claim that when a tribal person converts, they essentially give up their traditional way of life. Thus, they argue that they should be denied access to benefits that tribals receive, such as reservation in government jobs.

Many activists, however, argue that this demand, particularly since it is spearheaded by bodies linked to the Sangh, represents an effort to subsume Adivasi identity into the Hindu fold.

The Manch and other right-wing tribal outfits also argue that tribal Christians gain benefits from both their minority status and their Scheduled Tribe status. I asked the co-convenor of the Manch, Dr Rajkishore Hansda, what these benefits were. He added, “They are educated in minority institutions and then they take Scheduled Tribes’ reservations for government jobs. They take half the benefits from their religious status and the other half from their Scheduled Tribe status. This becomes a double advantage.”

The high-profile event and the government’s tacit support of it suggests that, going forward, the Manch will play a key role in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s efforts to shape tribal policy across the country.

The Adivasi writer and activist Gladson Dungdung noted that while “the Manch has been active for a while”, they had thus far met with limited success in Jharkhand. The key reason for this, he argued, was that apart from demanding the delisting of Christian tribals, the group also opposed the popular demand among many Adivasis for a separate code for the indigenous Sarna faith.

But, he added, “The demand for delisting will come up repeatedly until the next set of elections in 2029. And if a bill is introduced in the parliament, then we will have to wait and see what happens.”

The organisation and the demand

The Janjati Suraksha Manch was established in 2006 in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, a state where more than 30% of the population comprises Scheduled Tribes. Oraon noted that since then, it has opened branches or affiliates in all states that have a significant tribal population.

The Manch took its first major step in 2009, when it submitted a signature campaign to President Pratibha Patil, with their demand for delisting converted tribals. It has kept up a steady pressure on such matters since then. For instance, it has played a key role in persuading converted tribals to give up Christianity, and in carrying out ghar wapsi ceremonies. It has also mobilised to deny Christians burial rights and put in place other forms of social ostracism in villages.

The central demand has a history that goes back several decades. Among those who most prominently raised it was the Oraon Adivasi leader Kartik Oraon, whom the Manch lists on its website as an “unsung hero” of the Indian freedom struggle.

In 1962, Kartik Oraon stood for the Lok Sabha election from the Lohardaga constituency, then in Bihar, which was reserved for candidates from Scheduled Tribes. He lost to a Christian candidate, while another Christian candidate secured the third position.

Kartik Oraon challenged the result in an election tribunal, which ruled against him. He then appealed this decision in the Patna High Court.

The crux of his argument, as the judgement went on to note, was that his opponents had “nothing to do with the animistic faith and tribal way of life”, that they did not “follow the manners and customs of the tribes”, or have any “affinity nor any common interest, defence or aspirations with or for the tribal people”. Thus, he argued, they should be prohibited from contesting elections under seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

The Patna High ruled against Kartik Oraon, stating that it found “no merit in the appeal”.

In its reasoning, it noted that many Christian Oraons observed certain “tribal festivals not in conflict with Christianity” and maintained “tribal ways of life”. Further, it observed “non-Christian Oraons treat the converted Oraons as tribals”, calling them “Christian Oraons”. This demonstrated that Christian Oraons are “Oraons first and Christians next”, the court held. It also noted that the winning candidate had worked for the upliftment of both non-Christian and Christian Oraons, and that “both kinds of Oraons” considered him “to be one of them”.

Overall, it stated, “Christian Oraons are Oraons in spite of their conversion, and are entitled to the rights and privileges of the tribals”.

A contentious bill

Kartik Oraon’s involvement in this question did not end there. In the next Lok Sabha election, held in 1967, he won from the Lohardaga constituency and entered parliament. In August that year, the government introduced the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Order Amendment Bill to revise the lists of these groups across India. The bill was referred to a joint committee, of which Kartik Oraon was a member.

Among the amendments the committee debated recommending were that “no person who has given up the tribal faith or faiths and has embraced Christianity or Islam should be deemed to be a member of Scheduled Tribe”.

Many members opposed the suggestion. For instance, the member of parliament Emonsing M Sangma, from the Garo community in then Assam, argued that Christian tribals did not automatically become “advanced, civilised and rich” by forfeiting their tribal religion. The committee’s final report records his argument that the improvement the lives of these tribal people had seen were a result of the “special care and attention” provided by the Union government, and that taking away that care would become “a strong barrier for the Christian tribals to proceed on in their efforts towards progress and development”.

Sangma also argued that religion could not be the singular criterion for determining whether a community qualified as a Scheduled Tribe. Rather, he said that, as the 1965 Lokur committee had suggested, these criterion should include “primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness.” These traits, Sangma argued “abundantly existed” in both Christian and non-Christian tribal communities.

The proposed amendment did not secure adequate support within the committee. Its report noted, “After discussing the various aspects of the issues involved in the proposed amendment at considerable length, the Committee decided to put it to vote as a result of which it was lost.”

In his interview to Scroll, Megha Oraon claimed that the 1967 committee had conducted an assessment of the religion of government officials in reserved posts for Scheduled Tribes and found that a large majority of the posts were occupied by converted tribals. However, Scroll examined the report and found no mention of such a study or findings.

In fact, Sangma had addressed such claims in his arguments, stating, “If one, on the spot, studies carefully and learns the actual fact correctly, one will be glad to know that this sort of allegation against the Christian tribals is very unfair and not correct.”

Arguments and criticisms

One of the foremost critics of the demand to delist converted tribals has been former Jharkhand minister Geetashree Oraon, Kartik Oraon’s daughter.

In interviews to various news outlets, Geetashree has been reminding people that her late father wrote a book named “Bees Varsh ki Kali Raat” (Dark Night of Twenty Years), in which he categorically stated that Adivasis practice Adi Dharma, an animistic faith that predates Hinduism. Furthermore, she has noted, while her father did demand that Christian tribals be delisted, he also recommended that the government initiate a new category of reservations for backward Christians.

In contrast, the Manch blurs arguments about religion and tribal identity.

On the one hand, its leaders argue that major religions pose a threat to tribal identity and tribal religions. “When tribals convert to Islam and Christianity, they have to obey the Quran and the Bible respectively,” said Hansda. “If they continue to follow tribal customs, then they are betraying both their own religion and the Adivasi religion.”

At the same time, they exclude Hinduism from this list. “Hinduism is a way of life,” Hansda said. “Whoever is born in India, their nature and culture are one and the same.”

This is a key argument that critics of the Manch focus on. In Jharkhand, for instance, a mixed group of activists and leaders from various communities, including Adivasis of different faiths, put out a public appeal to boycott the May event. The appeal stated that organisations such as the Manch believe that “Adivasis are Hindu and part of the caste system”. This, they noted, is why they typically use the term Vanvasi rather than Adivasi. Many activists reject the former term, arguing that it reduces the description of Adivasis to just “forest dwellers”, whereas the term Adivasi foregrounds their indigeneity and their rights over land as first settlers.

“On one hand these organisations are working to destroy the independent existence of tribals by promoting the term Sarna Sanatan,” the appeal stated, referring to a term that conflated an indigenous Adivasi faith and a word used as synonymous with Hinduism.

Activists also argue that this line of thinking erases the long fight of Adivasi and tribal communities for their own religious code. The appeal added, “On the other hand, they are working to break the collective identity of tribals by demanding the delisting of Christian tribals from the tribal list.”

Another major concern among activists and members of tribal communities is that if Christian tribals are delisted, land that they own will lose protections afforded to tribal-owned land in areas listed under the fifth and sixth schedules of the constitution – for instance, the sale and transfer of such land to non-tribals is restricted. Many fear that delisting Christian tribals would leave these lands vulnerable to being taken over by outsiders, through legal and illegal routes – this, they fear will also gradually lead to a dwindling of the Scheduled Tribe population of these areas.

Hansda dismissed these concerns. “If people are concerned about this, then they should think, which will be more advantageous?” he said. “Remaining a religious minority or a Scheduled Tribe? If this amendment is made, we are expecting there will be mass drives of ghar wapsi across the country, so there should be no threat to land.”

While the debate has largely been centred on central Indian states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, critics also note that if converted tribals across the country are delisted, northeastern states like Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya which are Christian majority states, would be plunged into massive administrative confusion. According to the 2011 census, Christians comprised over 87% of the population in Mizoram and Nagaland and close to 75% of the population in Meghalaya.

Hansda dismissed these concerns also. “The Christians in these states will remain religious minorities,” he said. “If they wanted to retain the Scheduled Tribe status, then they should do ghar wapsi.”

A Muslim woman was arrested and her son detained on Saturday after he allegedly brought beef in his school tiffin and allegedly forced two Hindu classmates to eat it in Assam’s Goalpara district, The Times of India reported on Sunday.

The mother, who had cooked the meal, was charged with criminal conspiracy, wrongful restraint, deliberate and malicious intention of outraging religious sentiments and criminal acts done by several persons, the newspaper quoted the police as saying.

The first information reports were filed based on complaints by the families of the Hindu students.

The incident occurred at a higher secondary school in Krishnai town on Friday and sparked tensions in the communally sensitive district, according to the newspaper.

Private consumption of beef is permitted in Assam. It is prohibited in public spaces such as restaurants and at community events.

The police were questioning four other Muslim students who also allegedly tried to feed beef to their classmates, The Indian Express reported.

The four boys and the student who has been detained could be expelled, according to the newspaper. A decision would be taken at a meeting of the School Management Development Committee on Tuesday.

Mustafizur Rahman, the father of one of the four students, claimed that the boy who has been detained had brought beef biryani in his tiffin and shared it with his Muslim classmates, including his son.

The boy had also offered it to two other Hindu classmates, Rahman stated.

“He had only offered the rice, not the meat,” he told Scroll. “The Hindu classmates didn’t eat and ran towards the teacher’s office.”

Rahman added: “The headmaster heard the matter and resolved it. He had asked them not to tell this to their parents. However, the Hindu students told their parents and the [Hindutva group] Bajrang Dal and RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] people got to know.”

Hindutva groups held a protest the following day, after which the mother was arrested and the boy was detained, he added.

The school has directed that only vegetarian food be brought in tiffins, The Indian Express reported.

The newspaper quoted District Commissioner Prodip Timung as having directed the inspector of schools that “students should at most be allowed to bring eggs to school” and that fish should not be allowed.

Inputs from Rokibuz Zaman. Edited by Sneha.

A Patna court on Tuesday directed that no coercive action be taken against Bihar educator and YouTuber Faizal Khan, popularly known as Khan Sir, in an attempted murder case until the next hearing, The Indian Express reported.

The court was hearing an anticipatory bail plea filed by Khan.

A first information report was filed against Khan on Friday after two of his security guards allegedly told the police that he had ordered them to open fire during violence outside his coaching institute in Patna on June 2.

Khan, the two guards and unidentified associates were booked under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to attempt to murder and the Arms Act.

The case came days after Khan claimed that “eight to ten rounds of gunfire” were fired outside his coaching institute, Khan Global Studies, after a group allegedly vandalised the premises in Patna’s Musallahpur area. Following the incident, he alleged that persons had attacked the institute and that business rivals were behind the violence.

On Tuesday, the court also reserved order on the bail plea of Raushan Anand, the owner of the rival coaching institute, who was earlier arrested in the case along with two others on the night of the violence, based on Khan’s allegations, The Hindu reported.

The investigation into the case had begun after videos purportedly showing firing outside the coaching centre were shared on social media.

Witnesses allegedly identified the men seen in the footage as Khan Global Studies’ security staff and claimed that they fired “two rounds each”.

The police had said on Friday that Khan confirmed that the men were his institute’s security guards and that the rifles used were licensed weapons. The guards were subsequently arrested.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Also read: ‘Aaj Tak’ anchor Anjana Om Kashyap files defamation suit against Bihar educator, YouTuber ‘Khan Sir’

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led West Bengal government on Monday restored the Central Bureau of Investigation’s “general consent” to conduct inquiries in the state, almost eight years after the previous Trinamool Congress government withdrew it, ANI reported.

In a notification issued under 1946 Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, the state government said the consent would allow the CBI to investigate offences allegedly committed by employees of the Union government, central public sector units and private persons.

However, the agency would require permission from the West Bengal government before investigating public servants controlled by the state.

The Mamata Banerjee-led government had withdrawn the “general consent” to the CBI in November 2018, alleging that the Union government was misusing central agencies for political vendetta.

Over the years, several states, mostly ruled by the Opposition, had withdrawn the CBI’s general consent, such as Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Jharkhand, Punjab, Meghalaya, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Of these, Mizoram, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and now West Bengal have since restored the agency’s powers.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Eight persons have been booked after several posters with the “I Love Muhammad” slogan and a green flag allegedly resembling that of Pakistan were found inside a mosque that was being demolished in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district, PTI reported on Monday.

The Mustafa Qadri mosque was demolished on Saturday after it was identified as having been illegally built on land earmarked for a graveyard, PTI quoted the police as saying.

Sambhal MP Ziaur Rahman Barq told reporters that said that he too had such posters and “could keep a green flag”, asking “what kind of case would they register against me for that?” PTI reported.

“Under what provisions will a case be registered?,” the news agency quoted the Samajwadi Party leader as having asked. “If I love my Allah and my prophet within the fold of my faith, which section of the law applies to that?”

Barq alleged that the demolition of the mosque was illegal and that he would challenge it in court.

Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh: Demolition of the Mustafa Qadri Mosque in Kaserwa village, Sambhal, continued following a Tehsildar Court eviction order. DM Ankit Khandelwal and SP Krishna Kumar Bishnoi inspected the site. Officials said posters and a green flag were recovered during… pic.twitter.com/lAoxjvJ5Db

— IANS (@ians_india) June 6, 2026

In September and October, more than 4,500 Muslims were booked and 265 arrested in 23 towns after a row erupted about banners saying “I Love Muhammad” at Muslim religious processions, according to civil rights group Association for Protection of Civil Rights.

The right group alleged disproportionate police action and administrative targeting of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly after clashes broke out in the district on September 26 in connection with the banners.

The controversy began on September 4, when a group of Muslims held an “I love Muhammad” banner during an Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi procession in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur. Hindu groups had objected to the banner, claiming that a “new tradition” was being introduced at the procession.

The police had claimed at the time that rules prohibited introducing new customs into religious processions.

On Sunday, Barq claimed that the mosque demolished in Sambhal was about 150 years old and had been registered as waqf property in the state gazette since 1995, the news agency reported.

A waqf is an endowment under Islamic law dedicated to a religious, educational or charitable cause.

Additional Superintendent of Police (North) Kuldeep Singh said that the case had been registered against the eight persons, including the mosque's caretaker, for statements leading to public mischief. An investigation is underway.

District Magistrate Ankit Khandelwal said the mosque committee’s appeal against the tehsildar court’s eviction order had been rejected as it had failed to submit evidence to support its claims.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Economist Jean Drèze was awarded the Global Inequality Research Award at the World Inequality Conference held at the Paris School of Economics on Friday.

Drèze was recognised for his work on poverty and inequality measurement in India, as well as his advocacy for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the National Food Security Act.

After winning the award, Drèze said: “This recognition is not something I achieved on my own. All the work I do is in collaboration with people and collectives working for change.”

“India has all possible varieties of inequality – not only astronomical economic inequality, but also the caste system, huge gender disparities, massive disparities in access to education, and so forth,” Drèze said. “The silver lining is that India also has a rich history of resistance to inequality. I’ve been very fortunate to be associated with some of these movements.”

The Global Inequality Research Award is presented every two years to researchers who have made significant contributions to the understanding of global inequalities.

This is the second edition of the award. The 2024 inaugural Global Inequality Research Award was jointly awarded to Bina Agarwal and James K Boyce for their work on social and environmental inequalities.

In recent years, Drèze has opposed the repeal of the MGNREGA and questioned Aadhaar authentication for food rations.

He has argued that the new rural employment guarantee law, the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, “provides a work guarantee without any guarantee that the guarantee applies”.

Drèze has also questioned citizens being denied food rations through the public distribution system due to the absence of Aadhaar authentication.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

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